Avatar changed my life... again.

So I just saw avatar...

Hollywood as it was... it really wrapped me up in the plight of the navi' and the beautiful world they inhabit. And of course this connected in my heart with the devastation we're seeing on our own planet and the horrible mindset that is sometimes behind it.

I don't know if it's silly or stupid or sad or great or what -- but I hadn't ever cried for our planet before... That night after watching HomeTree fall, I cried... just a bit... I was mostly thinking of the ongoing oil leak, but it's just a symbol, as hometree was. It's everywhere.

I suppose something about having it all at once in that story and having it dramatized somehow made it more real than the real story that we hear about all the time. I wonder if this is yet another effect of being raised by movies and TV. ... But it could just be the slow boil/frog in the pot thing --> you know, just a bit here and bit there, suddenly the pot is boiling and we haven't noticed any changes big enough to alarm us. Even the big leak is almost like, "Big fucking surprise. It's just another catastrophic disaster at the hands of greed and laziness." ... But in this film we got to go from Eden to hell with demons in just over a couple of hours.

The picture below is actually of me after the film... scared, confused, angry, devastated. That's Kate behind me there.



And I think that that emotional connection I found after the movie, with the real world as I understand it is sticking around a bit. I can still feel some aftershocks as I write about it here. Maybe it's like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets.

And I say that the film "changed me... again" because I every once in a while I have a quick, nay punctuated, and deep connection with a thing (person, book, film etc.) and it sends me off in a different direction or more forcefully in an old/same direction. And this film made me remember again, not that I had really forgotten entirely, that what I want is to be an animal in a great and beautiful community of animals. I want to have my place and have close friends and neibours and allies in the non-human world. I don't like feeling like an awkward visitor on my own planet; it seems disrespectful or at least ignorant of the beauty we have.

you get the point. See the film. even if you think its stupid.

ps. in case you're wondering why I'm posting twice in one day... I'm at my mom's and the internet is at my fingertips.. not down the road and around the corner between 9 and 9 for 15 minutes at a time.

Soccer doesn't need you, but you need soccer.

So, one of the best joyous parts of my life right now is soccer. It is so amazing to run one's balls off chasing someone or getting into just the spot as the perfect pass comes sailing in. I play twice a week religiously.

I mean religiously in a partly literal way. It is a sort of worship of the human body, talent, coordination, and spirit of play. I am blown away by what my ankles will tolerate, how much I can run, and how inspired I am by those I play with.

This past weekend, a bunch of us from our little island went to Comox for a tournament. There were five teams, played against all of them on saturday and walked away undefeated. Sunday was semi finals and finals.

We went to the finals against a very good team from Victoria. We were up 2-0 at half-time, but they came back and scored their tieing goal in the last play of the game. We lost in a shoot out. It was a great game and we all had a fabulous time. I am proud to have scored one of our goals in the final.

Please enjoy the video of me scoring in the semi-final game. Thanks to Sherry for a perfect set-up pass.

I don't know if I could ever leave the sport, and consequently I don't know if I could ever leave my home on this little island.