I am disturbed by the media attention toward hollywood celebrities making political speeches. Dicaprio spoke at the UN climate summit urging world leaders to take action on global warming. Emma Stone publicly encouraged more men to work to stop violence against women. Look, I think it’s a good thing that celebrities have opinions and are trying to do something good for other people. Why are their opinions any more relevant than those of my next door neighbor? I reckon my next door neighbor’s opinions are more important to me, since actual change is going to happen when we strengthen the ties among people we have relationships with.
I just saw a video on youtube of frogs gathering around an iphone displaying a video of worms. It’s pretty clear they were trying to eat the worms, as some jumped into the screen. Funny, right? Definitely. Also saw a video of a farmer playing tuba in his field. The cows came running to hear it. Someone told me a story recently of swimming with manatees in Florida and scratching their bellies. They would hold her and follow her around. These are big sea mammals– it got to be too much and she had to get out of the water.
On the radio a sports talk personality made a sarcastic quip about saving the manatees. Yeah, who needs them anyway, really, am i right? I actually like this guy and don’t think he meant any harm by it.
It’s a strange fucking world we live in right now. I don’t think any of us are ready for it.
If cavemen lived nasty, brutish and short lives they must’ve been damn stupid. Look at those frogs, so easy to deceive. Or bend to our will. Maybe they weren’t stupid. Maybe just too nice.
Indigenous cultures, those based on hunting and gathering, small tribal groups– these people believed and still do in magic, spirits, and developed complicated rituals, customs based on those beliefs. I’m pretty sure they just needed to stave off the boredom like any fool watching videos on youtube.
Or was it loneliness? Just because you rely on people for everything doesn’t mean you trust them. Maybe they’re only helping you because if they didn’t, they’d die too.
That’s what Dicaprio was talking about, as it turns out. It’s not just a tribe now, or anyway, the whole of humanity faces that tribal problem of group survival. And we’re quite familiar with distrusting each other. And relying on each other. It’s really not that different. Only the stakes are higher.
I’ve found in my own life after a certain amount of procrastination there comes a time to go all in. Is it impatience or urgency, wisdom or folly– that, I don’t know. But you just can’t put all your faith in mistrust. I really don’t like this ending, but I’m tired, and I know the sun will rise again tomorrow (even if it’s still raining here in Seattle 🙂
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