I went to a free showing of the documentary 180 South at the local Patagonia store. You can read more about what I
thought of the movie over at my other blog. I will keep it short here, but it made an impact. And while I walked away more impacted by the message of the movie I still remember my heightened uneasiness with the people outside the store who bunched together attempting to get in and get a seat before the show.
Let me paint you a picture. Busy Newbury street in Boston, the end closer to Mass Ave. Doors of the Patagonia store closed, with a sign that says "closed while we prepare for the movie showing, will re-open at 7:30pm." When we arrive just a bit before 7pm there were probably 4 other couples milling around the door, not forming a line, but clearly just standing around looking at the door. As we got closer and closer to 7:30pm more and more people arrived, crowding everyone more and more. And finally when the door opened at 7:30pm to have a woman from Patagonia apologize that they were running late and quickly close the door again, the crowd surged together, stepping on toes, crushing their bodies and bags into humans that they would not normally even smile at if they were passing on an empty sidewalk on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. And yet now we were all left there, crammed together forced in this new uncomfortable closeness, when the woman next to me takes out a brush for her hair, and proceeds to brush her hair onto me. I picked some of her hair off my shirt later. Don't worry I let her jam in front of me when the doors did open, even though I had arrived at least 10 minutes before she did because I just didn't want to deal with it.
I am forced to believe she just isn't aware, which is probably the most frustrating part. It's these little ways we treat each other and the earth that are breaking all of us, slowly, we aren't aware of other people, other situations, or of the earth and what we are doing to it.
It's time to think about more than just yourself, and your family. Think about the other drivers- quit texting while driving, think about people around you when you decide to make a dead stop in the middle of the grocery store aisle allowing your cart to block anyone from getting by. Think about what throwing out that plastic bottle does to the earth. Or what tossing that cigarette butt on the sidewalk does to that new puppy who eats EVERYTHING while on his walk.
Please, just start to think.
Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. It's still making me smile. To all my friends who sent lovely presents, to my work friends, who brought me a gigantic cookie that is 1/2 eaten at my desk. No matter where life takes us, we will stay in touch, not because we have each others addresses, but because we're friends on facebook and that's almost more fun!
