Unless...

Mark was on the road a week or so ago and during some downtime he had, he pulled up Netflix on his computer and looked for a movie to kill some time. He ended up browsing the documentary section and ran across a movie that piqued his interest. It's called 180˚ South. He really liked the movie. He told me that it changed his way of thinking and that I needed to watch it. I told him "Oh yeah, I'll have to watch it." But, what I was really thinking was "I'll get around to it sometime." And that's where I left it.

Then, Mark was home last week and suggested that I turn on the movie and watch it. So, I curled up on the couch and prepared myself for the inevitable boredom that was about to engulf me. I'm not a big fan of documentaries. To me, most documentaries are sad. I guess they can be inspiring at times, but they are usually about someone/something that is oppressed and I just get upset. So, for my own self-interest, I just stay away from things that make me sad.

Except, this movie was REALLY GOOD. You need to find it. You need to watch it. I liked it so much that I made both Tyson and Goose watch it. They agreed with me. Great movie.

IMDB.com says The film follows adventurer Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. It was more than that. True, the adventure was pretty awe-inspiring, but it was the beauty and the simplicity of the film that struck me. Our earth is splendid. And we're killing it.

You and I probably won't see the effect of our choices. But, I promise you, our grandchildren and their children will experience fall-out from the decisions that we have put into play. I'm not naive enough to think that corporations will stop building, or that we will stop the cultivation of the natural resources surrounding us.

But I do think quite often about waste. I think about how we are in charge of our own decisions. Nope, I can't stop some of the big stuff, but I can control what I do.

The following statement is from the movie: "It's easy for us to blindly consume, when we don't see the effects it has on other places. The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life, it's so easy to make it complex. What's important is leading an examined life because most of the damaged caused by humans is caused unintentionally, I think. And in response to people saying,'You can't go back.'  I say, 'Well what happens when you get to the edge of the cliff. Do you take one step forward or do 180° turn and take one step forward? Which is progress?' The solution to many of the world's problems may be to turn around and to take a forward step. You can't just keep trying to make a flawed system work."

 “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not.” 

-Dr. Seuss