Ugh & Avatar & Random Thoughts

So...my dad's situation's gotten worse. Or maybe it's just that the reality of the situation is finally taking it's toll (especially in the financial department). Ugh it's messed up.

My sister talked to my mom, and finally got her perspective on the situation... which I can completely understand... I mean, I get why she wants to get in a divorce. But the thing is, why this way? Why take everything away, and kick him while he's down? Why can't things be split 50/50 between them two, everything equal. Taking away everything someone has, and then making them pay for not having it isn't right...Especially when they haven't done anything wrong.

Is it because she doesn't want to force too much change upon the kids by selling our old house? I think she needs to realize there are more important things in our lives than where we live. The ideal situation at this point was everything split, mom sells the house, gives half of the money to my dad...they both find new places, and the kids spend a week at each place. It's a change from what we had before, but at least no one's pulling the short stick (an extremely short stick anyway). Maybe I'll try talking about this with her...

Anyways

Saw Avatar again today, this time in IMAX. Just as amazing seeing it the second time. Like I said before, everything about this movie strikes a chord with me. Just a warning here, this movie brings out my deepest-rooted hippiness and if you don't like hippiness (if that's a word), you can stop reading. Anyways, I think the movie truly shows how disconnected we are from each other, from nature, from everything. It's so easy to hit a big red button and destroy something that someone loves if we simply ignore or fail to make the effort in understanding why they feel they way they do. Same thing with forcing our beliefs/systems/culture onto other cultures. Just because we think its better doesn't mean they think it's better. There's a reason things are the way they are, and we don't have the right to change that.

Not only that, but everything in the movie makes you realize how our modern culture can be seen as a step backwards for humanity...not forwards. While these indiginous tribes are out there everyday hunting, running freely through the forest (hippiness x 10000), singing, experiencing LIFE like it was meant to be (also providing for themselves). In modern society we're force-fed all these different systems and beliefs... We live our life everyday doing monotonous boring things. We go to "school" or "work"...A lot of people out there simply aren't living LIFE like they were supposed to. The closest we get to an exciting day is watching a cool movie, watching SOMEONE ELSE do something exciting! Yes, things are more predictable, systematic, safer...the way we live now. But it makes things BORING! If we're gonna live our whole life in a little box, what's the point in living? We need to get out more! Take risks! We might not be able to live like the Na'avi do in that movie...but hell we can do the best that we can.

That movie actually really made me want to like...live with some like indigenious South American tribe or something. I mean, that culture and its people won't last long the way things are headed now... Soon cultures like that will be extinct, with nothing left to show for them! It's the closest thing we have to what the movie showed us. Not that I want to live my life according to a movie. I've always thought it'd be amazing to live with a different culture, see how they view the world...how they're different from us. I mean today we live through movies, textbooks, exams, words in our brain and different images... There's such a huge difference between LEARNING it (through books/videos) and LIVING it. That's why field work's so awesome.

Hmm I lost my train of thought...what was I going to say. OH YEAH! I realized from watching this, watching interviews with people like J.J. Abrams, and games like The Longest Journey (I'll need to have a separate blog post about TLJ sometime) that one major thing that's missing in most of us nowadays is that sense of MYSTERY. A sense of the unknown. Why do you think kids are always so darn happy, energetic, and lively? It's because to them, the world is full of possibilities! They don't know a ton of stuff, the world is an ocean of mystery to them...why do you think they ask so many questions? When you grow older, reality starts setting in...the things we can or cannot do. If you're curious about something you can just Google it or search for a video on YouTube. It's convenient, yes, but it ruins the mystery of it all.

I'm not saying we have nothing left to wonder about. There's the entire universe to be discovered, and quite a lot of stuff here as well. But it's...less obvious I suppose. Anyways, I just wanted to stress how important mystery truly is To borrow from TLJ:

“You see, senorita, mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where.”

One last side note on this subject is the shallowness of television/the internet etc. To connect what I was saying earlier, you cannot truly know something until you've lived/experienced it. Searching "Brazil" on Google Images or Wikipedia isn't going to give you even a fraction of an idea of what going to Brazil will be like. It has to be experienced.

ANYWAYS that was a lot of rambling. Most of it probably didn't make any sense...Lot of thoughts coming from everywhere I guess. Hopefully I got some of my message across...Allright though, I'm gonna call it a night. PEACE!