Avatar is wonderfully entertaining in all it’s glorious 3D computerized cinemagnificence.  Yet peoples’ responses to the movie are a blow to my gut. Why? Movie critic David Edelstein says “the narrative would be ho-hum without the spectacle.” I have heard people say:  the movie is wildly entertaining but there is nothing to the story.

Nothing to the story???  Avatar tells a very important, timely and compelling story–the most important story of modern times:  how magnificent the biodiverse, healthy natural world–how magnificent our existence when connected and in balance with the sacredness of life all around–and how modern humans destroy life and anything that gets in the way of profit.  It is a tale with a moral and one that is so timely. I urge you to see the movie and do some teaching when you hear the story was meaningless or boring.

Encourage people to see the movie Signs Out of Time about archaeologist Marija Gimbutas who discovered the more complete story of human history–the coming of the “sky people,” the Kurgans, into Old Europe began the change from original societies that were peaceful and in balance with the Earth. This is our true story–our legacy. Not only for those of Indoeuropean descent, but for all peoples who have been affected by the European common culture. Gimbutas tells of the vestiges of the old ways in Europe: in Lithuania people still go outside and kiss the Earth as their first activity of the morning. Indigenous peoples all around the planet practiced life in balance with the Earth. They treated the Earth as sacred and listened to Her messages. In how many ways and in how many places have modern human culture decimated the indigenous ways. When people tell you it is human nature to dominant one another and nature, please beg to differ.

Encourage people to read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. The book is a classic that should be required school reading. In an inventive and thought-provoking method it demonstrates that humans are not dominating and hording by nature–it tells how the shift came to be from tribal and more balanced cultures to the organization of society that is now all around us and all-consuming.

By all means, urge people to see Avatar. And when they say, eh, not much to the story, please beg to differ.

Happy Holidays!!
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