Through Our Eyes

I just watched, for the second time, the documentary film “I Am” by film director Tom Shadyac. Tom is the director of such hits as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”, “The Nutty Professor”, and “Bruce Almighty”. “I Am” is a wonderful documentary where Tom realized, after buying 3 mansions with over 17,000 square feet, that he wasn’t any happier, especially when he saw so many homeless living off the streets just blocks away from his mansion. And then when an accident left him in a lot of pain, he went in search of answers to the questions “What’s Wrong with the World?” and “What Can We Do to Fix it?” by talking to philosophers and spiritualists around the world.  What he found was a lot that was right with the world especially in the form of compassion for others that we all share.

One interview I found especially interesting was with Thom Hartmann, author of “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight”. Thom talked about a study where a group of deer was observed to see which was the alpha deer and how they would display that position in the group. What the observers found was quite surprising. When some of the group wanted to get water, they would start by looking in the direction of one of the known waterholes. Soon, others were pointing in that direction. When more than half of the group pointed in the direction of the waterhole, the group started migrating towards the waterhole. There was no one alpha directing the group to go at a certain time or to a particular waterhole.  It was through cooperation and the group making a democratic decision that they all started to move toward the waterhole.

As always, we can learn a lot from the wildlife on our planet, who know how to live in this world without any input from humans.