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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Avatar Again



I watched Avatar again.
It is not my favorite film, nor does it appear that it would ever be any time soon. There are just too many distracting flaws in it for it to be something. The best portion is what we might call The Education of Jake Sully into the ways of The People, or Na'vi.  That part is really great Dances With Wolves type of great! (The film is a bit derivative from a lot of obvious sources.... way too obvious for comfort.)

Anyhow, some people said at the time it came out that it gave the impression of being anti-American. That was an interesting comment. I suppose that if you chose your imagery of America along the lines of techno-warfare against non-technological peoples, and an utter disregard for the welfare of God's creation, then it might seem anti-American.

For heaven's sake, the name of the moon is Pandora, meaning the all-giving in Greek. What is all-giving if not the earth, if not God's creation? When creation gives, how do we receive the gift? 

You know, I do not really know how say really wealthy people receive the gifts of wealth from God's creation. I really do not know. Do they sort of say a lot of prayers of thanksgiving every day? Do they give thanks, realizing the evanescent nature of riches, and turn aside the evil one by doing at least one virtuous act every day?
If we receive the gifts of creation as if they were our right and our due, then we might tend to inflict war on those who are in the way of our increase and augmentation: drone them and let Allah separate the guilty from the innocent!
If we receive the gifts of creation with the realization that all life is "on loan" for a short while, we might do things differently.

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