Needing mindless entertainment, a friend and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean 2, with the hilarious Johnny Depp. One of the endless bits of advertising was for an upcoming football film based on a true story about LA Gangbangers who are sent to a particular facility and turned into a football team. The guy who trained them in real life felt that he needed to take these rival gangs and teach them to trust each other, and turn them from potential statistics into winners (he means in the sense that they'd make something positive of their lives, not necessarily on the football field.) His premise was to take historical hatred and turn it around by showing them what they shared. I didn't think much about it, other than to note it's a football film, which I love as a genre because football players have fantastic butts, and I like to - oh, never mind - but after the movie, and dinner, I came home, and was downloading some music to my ipod when it hit me.
One true method of eradicating historical hatreds is to find the common, shared experience. We look at the differences, because it is easy. It is much harder to find commonality. When I was new in AA, all I could focus on was how different everyone was from me, and how I didn't belong there. I hated it. Someone wiser told me I had to find the similarities, to listen to the similarities. It saved my life. There is a Kabbalistic concept of a River of Light that connects all things. We are connected. Our job, as human beings, is to try to heal the world.
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7 comments:
Nobody makes eyeliner as sexy as Johnny Depp... and I agree with you completely on the issue of we have more similarities than differences. I just wish the lunatics who are now running the global show would care to realize that. But what do they care? As long as their bloody actions make somebody a buttload of money, that is all that matters.
Beautiful post Diva. This is also a very common Buddhist idea. We are doing our best...all of us!
Yes. We were having a conversation much like this last night with our dinner guests. We're all one people on one planet. That's a good beginning.
Tina, I adore Johnny Depp. And football players' butts. But in reading John Dean's new book, Conservatives Without Conscience, I am starting to understand how we've gotten into the mess we are in.
Glenda, thank you. I have just signed on for the morning, so I haven't read much yet.
BZ, it is the people who are doing our best, not our various leaders.
Robin Andrea, I still hold out hope for peace. What was for dinner? :-)
There is a Kabbalistic concept of a River of Light that connects all things. We are connected. Our job, as human beings, is to try to heal the world.
and it is the job of our leaders to keep us divided so that humanity is unable to achieve this goal (while they plunder the Earth for their own personal gain)
I saw some interesting previews at the movie theater yesterday as well
Diva, I think that we shall overcome. We must stay together and try to heal the world simply because of our immoral leaders. One day, the leaders will become followers. Nuts? I have a dream.... I am unable at this time to forget or forgive the intentional chaos leaders have created for financial gain, but I can work hard to help others and to lead my life in a way that would make my mamma proud. When I see the pictures of the dead children, that is when I know we are all more alike then different. Thanks for this post.
agi, our leaders are flat out criminals.
Karena, the current administration is going down in history as a pack of criminals. OUR job is to continue to be vocal, to shine the light on their activity, and throw them out of office. Impeach now.
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