nancylicious

MARCH 11, 2010 - ON NOT PLAYING SMALL

I am currently in an (in)decisive midst, wondering about The Big What Next? of my life.  This dilemma is not merely geographical; nor is it simply about the next six months.  With greater self-awareness, I am not about to put myself in a temporary holding pattern.  To wait and scrimp and save until next season would be the tropical equivalent of ‘living for the weekend.’

The Universe taught me this lesson today - to think bigger, to open up, to continue being true to yourself - through H, one of my closest friends in Nosara.  We started our journeys outside of Corporate America together last July and have called Costa Rica home for the past nine months.  Like myself, she is asking herself When am I returning?  Am I done with Nosara? What next? And unlike myself, she has been much more honest and forthcoming with her emotions and her wants.

H paddled up behind me during yesterday’s sunset surf. “I’m leaving,” she said.  And the way in which she said it implied something more permanent than just her next visa run.

“Oh? Where are you going?  What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to… New Zealand.”

And there were squeals and splashes as she recounted how our mutual friend Y offered her a six month long opportunity to teach Ashtanga Yoga in Auckland.

I’ll be honest: there was a 5 second Why Not Me? moment.  But I know New Zealand is not where I am next meant to be.  Y chose absolutely the right person; I cannot think of a better yogini - on and off the mat - deserving of such an international adventure.  In fact, secret confession: I may even be sick of being abroad and rootless.  Some days, I want to skip ahead two chapters of my life already, to the part where I have a home, a steady, and a puppy.  And that admission is hard for this wanderluster to make.

But hearing H’s plan opened my eyes.  New Zealand was not even on her radar the last time she weighed and recounted her options to me.  New Zealand represents thinking outside the box and playing Big in the game of Life.

I am no longer simply plotting how to spin my wheels for the next 6 months.  I am planning my next life adventure.  Like Oprah says, I will be doing the best at this moment to put me in the best place for the next moment.  Hope you will enjoy the ride.

Well, you and I both.

ELIZABETH GILBERT - On Intimacy for PBS’ THIS EMOTIONAL LIFE

Great retelling of the Hedgehog’s Dilemma, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s metaphor for human intimacy.

2010 ‘BEST DOCUMENTARY’ OSCAR AWARD WINNER
THE COVE - Director Louie Psihoyos

At the Tokyo International Film Festival, where The Cove was reluctantly and controversially screened, Psihoyos was asked, “what scientific proof do you have that dolphins are intelligent?” He replied:

By whose standards? Yours? A butterfly’s? Dolphins have a bigger brain than yours, and you can’t do anything well that they can do. I’m sure they must feel pity for us in when we’re in their environment. They’ve managed to live on the earth for 50 million more years than us with bigger brains and without jeopardizing the whole planet like we have in just a few decades. I’m glad they don’t have the power to ask, “what good are humans?” because it’s scientific proof that we’re destroying the planet. Dolphins are the only wild animal to save the life of humans, and the only way we can save them now is to prove we’ve made their environment so toxic that they are poison and should not be eaten.” [Psihoyos turns to his Japanese interpreter] will that translate?

Dizzamn, Louie. Congratulations on all the awards but you could have at least started by saying SPOILER ALERT.

So, um, I guess this is my warning.

Confession: I’ve wanted to watch this movie since I started crushing on Dave ‘Rasta’ Rastovich, founder of Surfers for Cetaceans. Who is Dave? A vegan yogi pro free-surfer now better known as an environmentalist: in 2007, he led the a paddle-out protest of Taiji, Japan’s dolphin killings alongside actresses Isabel Lucas, Hayden Panettiere, and former wifey Hannah Mermaid (I’m not kidding on the last one). This was a moment documented in the Cove (though, after watching, largely delegated to the ‘Deleted Scenes’ Special Feature) as a part of their mission to expose and stop the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins.

The film was expertly layered. In the foreground, we have the urgent, immediate Ocean’s Eleven-esque plot of, “given all the political barricades, how is Louie going to catch the killings on film?” In the background, we have personal Ric O’Barry’s narrative from Flipper Dolphin Trainer to Animal Rights Activist and an inquiry into why Japan persists this practice and its consequences. What the team uncovers is government corruption, the human health hazard of mercury poisoning, and an industry making over 2 billion dollars a year on captured dolphins.

I will say I’m definitely in the “Choir” section of this movie’s preach. As such, while I enjoyed the film, I wasn’t shocked or wowed by the Japanese’s posturing in the International Whaling Commission nor ultimately their reasons for continuing the slaughter.  The one part of the movie that did stir within me a visceral reaction was their chapter on the unfit-for-consumption high levels of mercury in dolphin meat, the intentional mislabeling of it, and thankfully unsuccessful campaign for it to be included in children’s compulsory school lunches nationwide.  As such, I was immensely appreciate of the DVD’s “Mercury Rising” Special Feature where they talked to scientists who underwent a ‘Supersize Me’ diet of eating less than a cup of tuna a day and tracked how quickly their mercury levels rose.  As someone who eats fish and eggs as her primary animal protein, this frankly freaks me the fuck out.

Overall, a great documentary on-par with Food, Inc.   And yet, while The Cove absolutely has merit, I wouldn’t be surprised if it partly won because it’s easier to criticize another country’s politics, pollution, and food culture over taking that same log out of our own eye.