Spaces of Mind

My mind is jumbled and lost and a million thoughts whiz through my synapses. I have absolutely no idea what this paper is going to be about. Koyaanisquatsi provoked too many thoughts for me to conceptualize anything.

Two screen shots from Koyaanisqatsi overlayed together. I made this while watching the film.

"My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations," John Green once wrote. God was he right. I've pressed backspace too many times and the words won't come. This screen is too white; where are the words to paint it black? 

I keep returning to the film's visual appeal. I was mesmerized by the natural world Reggio captured and I felt a strange nostalgia creep up my spine every time those clouds flowed past by my eyes in a rush of watery motion. I felt as if I were looking into the eyes of the world, through those deep blue oceans to the soul and the essence of existence. But existence is questionable and I cannot draw anything from the unknown other than more questions and speculation. Maybe this is precisely why I struggle to form concrete conclusions and reflections - because I cannot get past questioning. Reggio, you bastard, this is exactly what you wanted to happen. 

I’m so bothered by my inability to draw conclusions from this film because it felt so enlightening to watch. It felt important, but I have no idea why. Maybe it’s because I was watching the world from above, instead of playing one of its parts below. A word from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows surfaces in my mind when I think of this:

Sonder n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

          
 Koyaanisqatsi portrayed the realization “sonder” describes. No longer was I part of the traffic, but rather, its audience. Coming to this understanding opened my eyes to a dynamic, breathing world. Because we live in an individualistic society, we often think of the world as stagnant and foreign; but this documentary portrayed quite the opposite. We see the universe in constant motion. We watch it grow and decay and wake, but never do we see it rest. We intimately witness the world in its life and in its enormity.

            Sometimes seeing the world so large can trivialize its beauty to insignificance. Koyaanisquatsi portrayed quite the opposite. We see a story in every mountain, every ocean wave, every factory, every city, and every human. There is a story in every shot.

In class today, someone said it's unrealistic to believe humans are born from fire and air and the elements, that we are only protons, neutrons, and electrons. I was bothered by this statement. This idea strips the earth from its beauty. The mountains are magic, human interaction is magic. Love, hate, song, pleasure, sadness. These are all magic. And even though we are chemical, mechanical creatures, we are still able to feel, and this is the essence of life. That is why I love the painting below by Alex Gray so much - because it depicts the human existence so poignantly. 

I could not remove this image from my mind all throughout class today. I see people and nature as fascinating, creative, insightful, thought-provoking, and beautifully unbalanced. I may not know if you or I exist, but I take comfort in believing we do. And I think of the hundreds of thoughts I took away from the film, this is what Koyaanisqatsi reiterated to me the most. 

Philip Glass.

You are pretty but you make me sleepy.

People Who Preach It Right

RAMSHACKLE GLORY! "they stole everything and locked it away/so we'll smash everything that's in the way/of a world where we can stand to breathe/without giving up what being human means/we can't wait for someone else to write the songs that we'll sing on the barricades/or until the last police is gone to keep each other safe/we can't wait until we know we aren't wrong to raise the stakes/we can't wait for someone else to write the songs that we'll sing on the barricades/I meet people everyday who can barely bring themselves to believe/that the sun is coming up again/I meet people everyday who can't bring themselves to believe/that the world is gonna change, as if it's ever done anything else"

http://ramshackleglory.bandcamp.com/

Song for Next May

Paragraph Practice - A Thought Nugget

Audiences often perceive environmental films as consistently lacking central, strong, and viable solutions to the issues they pose. Audiences tend to experience pessimistic feelings about what they’ve seen as they are unable to latch onto one, specific solution. They want the problem to go away through a trust in something bigger. However, as environmental documentarians already understand, these are dangerous feelings in a capitalistic world because the only current hope for an environmentally-conscious world is an environmentally-conscious populace. The solution rests with consumers. Many come away from the Plastic Planet feeling hopelessness and maybe Boote could have more effectively empowered his audience, but we need to be aware that the solution rests with our choices. Environmental documentaries empower the will and provide the mind knowledge, revealing to audiences that we are the solution. Under the current society, this idea could transform our planet, giving us hope for change without ignorance. 

Attack of the Lizard Men

It’s been a rough week  for documentary films in my life. It was environmental film week, which excited me and had me watching the docs early. Environmentalism is one of my favorite subjects. Its role was central and should have made a great show. However, I was sorely disappointed.

                Both films featured strong narrators who drove the plots of the films. While this stylistic choice can work well in certain cases, both narrators in these particular films projected inflated egos that distracted the viewer from the important environmental issues presented. Each narrator thought themselves very important to their causes. And to some degree, they thought they were more important than their causes.

                As a proponent of environmental advocacy, I was seething in my chair as these pretentious men shoved their personal agendas down my throat. I couldn’t even finish An Inconvenient Truth as Al Gore’s gentle-yet-oh-so-i-know-everything voice pummeled through my tolerance levels, leaving my internal thoughts screaming for respite. I felt irksome pains, carrying the force of a juggernaut, roll over me every time he spoke of his personal life story. Maybe I'm just a disgruntled anarchist, but his demeanor completely pissed me off. Watch for yourself. 

 "That brings up the basic science of global warming. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that because, uh, you know it well," he says. Oh the pains, they're rolling over me again. They make me relate to Louis CK when he asked Donald Rumsfeld, “Are you a lizard?”

Al, dude, you are a failed presidential candidate attempting to reclaim your self-pride by making your face the face of the global warming issue, a topic over which you have zero authority. This film was supposed to be about one of the most threatening issues our Earth faces currently and you’re telling me about your dad’s life as a cattle rancher. You are not cool. You are not smooth. You exploited the cause of environmental justice to further yourself in the eyes of society. Congratulations, Al. You even succeeded, winning the Nobel Prize for your work.

Werner Boote, in Plastic Planet, was less egotistical in his narration, but not much better. He probably thought his ability to speak in countless languages heightened his persona, but he missed the mark on the personality bit substantially. To give Boote some credit, he did seem more interested in his cause than Gore.

I’m left shaking my head in memory of these two men on my computer screen. I am angry. I feel like they profited from the issues that the earth is currently suffering just so they could profit, not so they could change the blight of the environment. The latter cause is the true purpose of environmental films – to empower the people and make the world healthier. I was left wanting far more from these two men, who cared more about their roles than the issues they preached. 

[Kids stating their dreams]

Common - It's Your World
To the children, foster your own thoughts and dreams. What does your soul tell you? Who are you? Be you. It's your world. Remember to love and listen to your master's voice, whoever that may be.

"[Kids stating their dreams]

Be, be here, be there, be that, be this
Be grateful for life, be grateful to life
Be gleeful everyday, for bein' the best swimmer among 500,000
Be-nign, be you, be mom's mean pie
Be little black sambo with bad hair
Be aware of Willie Lynchism, Be, be boundless energy
Be a four-star ghetto general, be no one except I
Be food for thought to the growin' mind
Be the author of your own horoscope
Be invited, be long-living, be forgiving, be not forgetful
Be a proud run, only to return to fight another day
Be peaceful if possible, but justice in any way
Be high when you low, be on time but know when to go
Be cautious of the road to college
Takin' a detour through Vietnam or the Middle East
Be visual of foreclosure over your shoulder while beggin'
A nation built on free labor for reparation
Be a cartopographer, a map maker
Be able to find Afro-American land
Search thoroughly, it may be close to black land
Be amended 5/5ths, be amended 5/5ths human
Be the owner of more land than is set aside for wildlife
Be cupid, to world government
Be found among the truth, lost tribe
Be at full strength when walking through the valley
Be not foolish as temporary king of the mountaintop
Be a brilliant soul
Sparklin in the galaxy while walkin on Earth
Be loved by God
As much as God loved Ghandi and Martin Luther King
Be that last one of 144,000
Be the resident of the twelfth house
Be...eternal!"

Intolerance vs. Acceptance - Brainwashing at Jesus Camp

The shock value of Jesus Camp is pretty damn hard to move beyond. I find it incredibly difficult to dissemble the story and filter it in a way that allows me to see its intent and perspective. So for today, I think I’ll just talk about Jesus Camp at face value. The story has a great deal to offer in the realm of religious discussion.

                At many points in the film, the audience is left completely baffled at the brainwashing occurring with these evangelical children. We see a mother telling her son of the non-threat global warming poses to the planet. We watch the idea of creationism pour into the innocent, ready minds of the children. We see political and religious beliefs mix in an unsettling pot, churned by the religious leaders and parental figures of the evangelical movement. We see children born into a culture of partisan thought. They are taught at the ready ages of five, six, seven, that religious-based prejudice is not only okay, but encouraged.

                Quite surprisingly however, what unsettled me most about the film was how much I identified with these kids. I grew up in a Catholic school, attending church two times a week, from the ages of four to 13. I was educated by a voice that spoke of Christian values. And while I didn’t try to convert anyone or admonish anyone for their faith, I certainly thought of myself as better because of my strong Christian views. This is a truth about my past identity that I find myself weeping for now. My tears flow as these memories are solidified into words. I remember. And I am sorry.

Holy Spirit School in Louisville, KY, where I attended grade school from kindergarten through eight grade.

                Jesus Camp reminded me of how deeply rooted my values are in knowledge and acceptance, especially regarding faith. Certainly I am proud of my religious heritage and culture, but I completely break from the tradition of conditioning the ignorant young into one’s own beliefs. I have said for the past few years now that when I have a child, he or she will thoroughly understand the basic beliefs of most religions. The child will have a vast knowledge of the rich and beautiful cultures that exist behind these faiths. I believe that from this knowledge comes acceptance, which ultimately can bring peace and prosperity.

                Jesus Camp highlighted the partisanship that exists among faiths today. This was demonstrated well by an interview with Camp Director Becky Fischer at the beginning of the film. She says she wishes that the youth of America could have the same passion in their faith as the children of Pakistan, Israel, and Palestine. Kind of funny that she would mention some of the world’s most violently religious nations to prop on a pedestal. She continues by saying that it is Christians who have the coins of truth and love in their pockets, coins that she is quite ready to use as a payday for the rest of the planet. But to me, that money is an empty briefcase, spawning a mafia of faith-wielding soldiers onto each other, degrading one another, and forgetting altogether the message of tolerance taught by most religions.

 I am exasperated from religious intolerance. I am tired of watching children of all faiths growing up believing they are better. I am ready for a world that strips established religion from its intolerant, ignorant tendencies and instead focuses on the values of knowledge, acceptance, and love. And when these worlds fall into the palm of the world’s hands, I hope they slip like sand into the minds of the young like the glow-in-the-dark stars that hang on their ceilings, creating dreamers and doers and thinkers and believers all in the name of love, only to wake on a pillow of peace, singing in harmony: Be who you want to be and hold your neighbor in your palms of peace.