Global Oneness

Something about this Global Oneness video is so true but so meaningless.  Where is the line between lofty truth and meaningless generalities and rhetoric?  And why is it that some people hear truth and some people hear meaninglessness in the same message?  The imagery in this video is stunning, and inspires some global tale of desperation, adventure, poverty with the contrast of big city opulence.  But it also begs to be mocked, just a little bit. Or perhaps it’s just my conservative education that makes me laugh a little at these idealistic visions of “global oneness.”  Instead of talking about global peace, let’s just deal with the concrete problems, one at a time, on a local level, helping real individuals.

Part of Slumdog Millionaire’s success was it’s vibrant portrayal of India’s slum culture.  It found beauty in the trash.  Did it romanticize it too much, or did it simply capture the childlike exuberance, despite the filth?  It intimately brought us into another world, opening our eyes to the universality of human love (and brutality and selfishness).  And it worked, because we knew our characters’ histories and childhood dreams. The central claim that I took from Slumdog was that beauty exists everywhere, for all people and that a loving providence prevails when/if we embrace selfless love.

But when a story becomes too archetypal it loses grounding in the gritty details that make it real and thus, universal. Something about this little video is too universal and lacks grounding in a clear argument.

My mom shared this with me via her blog.

Plot Structure

So above is just one example of how people invent structures and sell them.  This guy gives seminars too.  So it’s kind of crap, but it’s also kind of useful if you don’t become a slave to it.

Tell me the story: Dinner at Latrigg

Dinner at Latrigg

This image jumped out at me as being very cinematic.  Something interesting is going on here.  Something about this story is going to make us look at the world in a new way.  Briefly, tell me the story here.  This is the opening scene.