We Sink or Swim Together
One thing you can do THIS WEEKEND to make the world better
Have you ever seen the movies“Bruce Almighty,” “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” or “Liar, Liar,” all starting Jim Carrey? What about “The Nutty Professor,” with Eddie Murphy? I’ve seen none of them, so forgive me, I’d also never heard of the director of those films -- Tom Shadyac.
I became aware of Shadyac for the first time in July 2012 — nine years ago now, because I caught a rerun of Oprah Winfrey’s “Super Soul Sunday” interview with him about his 2010/11 documentary film titled, “I AM.”
I was a year late to the game, but the interview was so fascinating — Shadyac was so compelling — that I rented the film that week, watched it two times and then wrote about it in my erstwhile Sense and the City weekly newspaper column for the Sarasota Herald Tribune.
If you haven’t seen “I AM” in the 10 years since it came out, you’ve got to watch it this weekend — it’s still out there on Netflix, Amazon, etc.
Will you do that for me?
Some reviews at the time the film came out described the film as being too earnest, too “giddy” about the possibilities of us all acting better. That was 10 years ago and an attempted overthrow of our government, horrifying acceleration of climate destruction, and a global pandemic later, here’s the truth: We literally have no f’n choice but to be earnest and consider all possible courses of action or behaviorial changes RIGHT NOW to save ourselves collectively, our precious creatures, and our one and only planet Earth.
For me, there’s no “earnest” enough — there’s no “giddy” enough — about what we can do and be for ourselves and for each other … if we choose.
The film digs deep. It challenges you to think about not just who you are … but what you are and how you exist in relation to other people, animals, plants, all living things, and um, stay with me here, even the air you breathe in through your nostrils.
High-falutin’ concepts but Shadyac succeeds in keeping the film grounded as he asks two questions: What’s wrong with our world? and What can we do to make it better?
Questions that might sound banal from overuse, but under Shadyac’s relaxed direction and participation in the film, the questions – and the answers the film gives – take on an almost urgent resonance and relevance.
Thought-provoking insights come from big thinkers of all walks of science, philosophy, faith and education; familiar names like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and people whose names you might not know (I didn’t): like Lynne McTaggart, Coleman Barks, and Marc Ian Barasch.
The film left me feeling impressed by the profound thinking these people have done.
It also left me humbled by our infinitely majestic and incredibly brilliant planet, where animals and plants, down to the smallest living organism, intuitively communicate, operate, and achieve life with a collaborative spirit not a competitive one.
I AM” debunks what we commonly believe is true about human nature: that humans are innately competitive and that survival (and success) goes only to the fittest – i.e., the award-winners, the richest, the most educated, the strongest, the most beautiful, and in many cases, the most ruthless.
The film suggests that the win-at-all-costs, dog-eat-dog mentality exhibited by everyone from Little League parents to politicians to Wall Street warriors, is something that is culturally beat into us – it’s not how we’re born to be.
Shadyac questions our contemporary culture’s obsession with accumulating more things, clothes, houses, and wealth than we can possibly need as individuals.
One of the most challenging moments of the film comes when he juxtaposes images of great wealth next to images of great poverty and asks the question: Isn’t this casual, yet brutal, dichotomy the very definition of insanity?
The questions Shadyac raises in his film are so resonant in today’s chaotic cultural clashes — evidenced by billionaires spending billions to take themselves on a joy ride to the edge of space (while billions of people live in brutal circumstances on planet earth) …
… and we’ve got people in Missouri getting vaccinated in “secret” so they won’t get vax-shamed by their anti-vaxxer friends and family.
“I AM” takes the position that we are all of each other, deeply connected as humans, and that if even one of us is poor and suffering then no one should be rich and luxuriating.
John Donne wrote, “every man is a piece of the continent.”
Thoreau asked, “What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”
Gandhi said, “Live simply so that others may simply live.”
And Albert Einstein, commenting on the commonly-held, human delusion that we are all separate individuals who are not all equal, said this:
“This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty ... . We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.”
How do you live? What impact do your choices and actions have on our planet and on humanity? Who are you?
These are questions that those of us who have the luxury of roofs over our heads, food in our kitchens, and money in the bank — those of us who enjoy the luxury of travel for the sake of fun (at what cost to our planet and the creatures who live on it) or who casually throw out leftovers or who think nothing of accepting plastic bags for takeout or groceries — these are the questions that should not haunt our nights but should infiltrate and inform every waking moment of our days, actions, behaviors.
Please watch, learn, and respond to the call to action of Shadyac’s film, “I AM.”
It just might change who we all are.
I invite you — in fact I beg you! ;) — to share this essay far and wide!
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Another great THINK piece. I will look for that, MC.
Fun fact, my brother went to school with Shadyac and illustrated a book for him 40 years ago.