Retelling the story

Most people know of General George Armstrong Custer. His infamous school record helps to ameliorate the embarrassing loss the United States Cavalry suffered at the hands of primitive savages even though the Sioux and their allies outnumbered the U.S. soldiers by a wide margin. It's a dark day in American history and, since it's being told by the eventual "victors" it has to be justified somehow.

The People know Little Big Horn as the Greasy Grass. As you might expect, their stories of the same event are a bit different. The People was also a name used by some very tall blue, cat-like humanoids in the movie Avatar.

I saw this movie the other night.

If the indigenous people hadn't been so tall (etc.) I might have been watching an updated version of my favorite movie of all time - "Dances With Wolves." The rest of the metaphor works perfectly.

I have read a number of reviews about James Cameron's "Avatar." Most people are commenting about the technical aspects of this cutting edge piece. It's definitely interesting from that standpoint. I enjoyed the experience of 3D once I got used to it. That must be an age thing. I'm still not taken in by the character's movement that is produced by the computers, however. The characters still have an artificial method of locomotion that is a bit distracting.

Many have said that the story is way too superficial and trite. I agree. I found myself nodding off at times as the film introduced the viewer to the ways of the cat people - how quaint and pure and innocent. I guess we need this to draw us into a story about a culture who's ways are not only inferior to ours but have become an impediment to our restless need to acquire.

By the end of the movie I found myself very unsettled. I've thought about why for a couple of days now. In my effort to figure out the source of this impact I read a number of reviews of the movie from different perspectives. This included the rave reviews about the technology used and the less than complimentary reviews of the story line. Both of these areas have been adequately covered.

I also read reviews about the meaning of this film - its purpose, its message. Now we're getting somewhere. These reviews are predictably falling along racial and ethnic lines with white men tending to defend their right to have what they can get without regard to who or where it's coming from. And the minority folks are railing and ranting about the injustice of it all - of being portrayed, once again, as being in need of an enlightened white savior to lead them to victory (like Costner did).

What I saw on the screen was, of course, the age old conflict between good and evil. But, more than that, it was the conflict between philosophies.

One is the idea that we can have whatever we want simply because we can - manifest destiny. The "sky people" (read Rich Whiteman) were desperate to secure for themselves the riches of this far away paradise (cleverly called unobtanium) because their own world had been exploited to the max. The other idea was the gentler version of living within ones means and celebrating the interconnectedness of all life.  You don't have to look too deep to see these themes.

I was struck by how superficial most people are toward this conflict. It seems like the second idea would appeal to more people than it does. The saddness I felt at the end of the movie, even among the celebration of the unlikely victors, was the product of my realization that the idea is lost on most Americans (regardless of race).

The movie Avatar has made people wealthy. There's likely to be a sequel. By necessity it will have to include lots of shooting and killing and blowing things up. This is a problem I think. Our world has become so untenable that we have to distract ourselves from the reality of it by creating, at least for a few hours, a type of entertainment whose value is rated by the number of explosions that occur and how life like they seem.

I think that we need to start doing things another way. To make the change that we say we want in the world we're going to have do something different. I'm hoping the sequel starts with the Cat People using the technology of the temporarily vanquished sky people to go to Earth and help get the planet back in shape and thereby enable the sky people (now Earth People) to survive within their means and without exploiting the wealth of other planets.

Or, maybe we could just use the story to start our own revolution. When the blue cat people get here we can welcome them with open arms and celebrate the wealth of the diversity that they bring since we will have already come to value the diversity that exists on our own planet. We will know the only way to survive as a species is incumbent upon our ability to cooperate with each other and to respect the source of our existence enough to live sustainably upon the Earth.

Burning Down the School

I got a call just after I got home last Friday night (11/20). It was Terri, a secretary at the high school with news that my room was "on fire." Yikes! The critters, etc. Well, I hurried back to school not sure what I might find but pretty sure that the fire would prove to be a minor issue (at least from a damage perspective).

Fortunately, I am not friends with any current Northwest students so I missed the blaze that I created on Facebook. I heard all about it on Monday and it sounded like fun. Not much factual information involved as students had perished in the inferno that had engulfed the entire blue wing!

Anyway, the reality was that a heat lamp had fallen into the cage with the bearded dragons and caused a log to smolder. It did produce a great deal of smoke but no real damage and the lizards seem to have been unaffected.

The negative upshot is, of course, that all things plugged in become immediately suspect as hazardous so I had to do a great deal of rearranging in my room to make the Fire Marshall happy.

Monday, the superintendent toured my room. I was nervous about his possible reaction to my indiscretion but was pleasantly surprised that his approach was all about how the district could help me to SAFELY provide the experiences that my classroom attempts to generate for my students.

I have never had a one-on-one conversation with Dr. Ziegler before so I don't know why I anticipated anything different (perhaps my previous experiences had a hand in making me nervous). Anyway, I was very happy with the way things turned out.

To make certain that my reputation continues to improve from this fiasco, I spent a couple of hours today (Saturday 11/28) cleaning a spot in the storage closet for all of my goodies.

Getting set for another run

As the challenge of balancing a late day class with the short days continues to play havoc with my running, I'm am counting the days now until I will begin the next 12 week Hal Higdon 1/2 marathon training program. I will be preparing for the Gasparilla race in Tampa, Florida. Allison has committed to run with me and that will be encouraging as well as motivating. I feel like I put myself out there by setting the new family 1/2 marathon record. I know I've got a target on my back now so I'll need to keep the effort up to maintain my spot on top.

This "just for fun" has an amazing ability to keep me working even when I don't feel like. I guess you've got to use what ever is available to get through.

Here are a couple of pics from my recent surprise birthday trip to Tampa. As always, Allison and David were the penultimate hosts. I went canoeing with Allison to see my first wild alligators. There were lots to see, as well as plenty of other critters on a beautiful fall day. The other pic is Allison and I as we are finishing our diving adventure in the big tank at Florida Aquarium. We snorkeled but there didn't seem to be much difference between that and scuba diving except that we couldn't go under water (not certified divers). You can see more pictures of both adventures here:

Tampa Aquarium 11_08_09

And here:

Tampa Trip