Choice

Today and ever since the election I have been reflecting on lessons contained in the movie "Avatar". In that movie people with short term financial interests wanted to take over the planet, Pandora. The residents of that planet had a very spiritual and connected way of life, honoring everything and everyone on the planet. The residents had a very special relationship with a particular tree they called the "home tree". At one point one of the potential invaders commented that "it’s just a tree" and later in the movie destroyed it. The residents then threw the invaders off of the planet. Thinking of the movie as a metaphor and Earth as our Pandora, we did not throw the invaders off of the planet - we put them in charge of it, with the expected consequences. As I point out in my book, the spiritual life requires focus but is also magical, like Pandora.