I recently saw a new documentary that I felt spoke to the heart of EarthAction's mission. It comes from filmmaker Tom Shadyac, who asks “what’s wrong with our world, and what can we do to make it better?” It is a drastic departure from the titles he is best known for, such as Bruce Almighty, Ace Ventura, and The Nutty Professor.
In 2007, Mr. Shadyac was in a cycling accident that left him with a chronic and debilitating condition called Post-Concussion Syndrome. This chronic condition forced him to come face-to-face with his own mortality: “Death can be a very powerful motivator…. If this is it for me – if I really am going to die – what do I want to say before I go? What will be my last testament?”
Shadyac goes on to sell his art-filled mansion and embarks on a “twenty-first century quest for enlightenment,” traveling the world in search of truth. What he found was a far cry from his previous A-list lifestyle.
Throughout the film, we see him speak with such luminaries as Desmond Tutu, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Lynne McTaggart, Coleman Barks, and Thom Hartmann, to name a few. “I didn’t want to hear the usual answers, like war, hunger, poverty, the environmental crisis, or even greed,” he explains. “These are not the problems, they are the symptoms of a larger endemic problem. In I AM, I wanted to talk about the root cause of the ills of the world, because if there is a common cause, and we can talk about it, air it out in a public forum, then we have a chance to solve it.”
I AM is an eye-opening journey of self-discovery intended to make us rethink ourselves and our place in the world. It asks deep questions in an attempt to find what is wrong with the world and, more importantly, what we can do to make it better.
At EarthAction, these are the questions that we want to explore. No two of our partner organizations are exactly alike, and yet we are all joined by the common goal of a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world. I AM's message of cooperation and interconnectedness reinforces the idea that as individuals and organizations, we must work together despite superficially disparate missions.
“The solution begins with a deeper transformation that must occur in each of us,” Shadyac explains. “I AM isn’t as much about what you can do, as who you can be. And from that transformation of being, action will naturally follow.”
I Am was, to me, an inspiring film and a timely reminder of the need for action and cooperation. I hope it will be the same for you. You can find movie times and more about the film at: http://www.iamthedoc.com/. - Lois
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