Someone was asking me about my work this week and it occurred to me to ask her if she had seen Avatar. Fortunately she had, so I told her that I help people to see their lives as Pandora. What a great visual. That just says it all. We have a choice. We can interpret life like the Na'vi or like the military. I love this movie more and more every day!
Remember the part where Neytiri, in a fit of frustration, calls Jake a baby? He didn't know how to engage with nature in Pandora. He reminded me of a child touching a hot stove. Even when told it was hot, sometimes we can't wrap our mind around the concept until we have gotten burned. In tending to our wounds we learn to respect whatever has burned us. But does our respect come from seeking to understand the nature of a stove or from fear of another burning?
Neytiri acknowledges her frustration toward Jake's naivety and uses it to bust his ego, but then she teaches him. The military, on the other hand, sends spies to find the Na'vi's naivety so they can use it as a weapon to ultimately destroy them with. The Na'vi see naivety as an opportunity to empower and the military see it as an opportunity to dis-empower. As Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." If we want to be surrounded by people who empower us then we must live in an empowering kind of way.
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