The Magic of Avatar

#1 Avatar - $1,844 million (since January 25, 2010)

Why?

The fastest grossing film to $1 billion clearly means that Avatar has grabbed the attention of the vast majority of film goers around the world... but why? I've been trying to figure that out now since I saw it a month ago, and then recently once more. On the surface it's a historical recreation of the devastation that was carried out against the Native Americans by the Europeans later known as Americans. Same characters, different planet. Same arrows and bows against the same superior weaponry, same quest for wealth leading to the same destruction of life. Same cliches, natives representing reverance and oneness with nature, native princess marrying the brain and personality of a white soldier, and an ending that any audience could have guess after viewing the first 20 minutes of the film.

However, Pandora is breathtaking, from it's beauties to it's dangers, the unique plant life, creatures, race of Navi, floating mountains, etc. The 3D effect was also a nice support in bringing this world to life. In addition, there were some very interesting concepts laid throughout the film. Like the network of connections within the roots of the trees which acted like a human brain, or how by using fiber optic tentacles each creature had the possibility of tapping into that network and bonding with one another. I felt this part of the film could have been developed a bit more by showing the transformation in the emotional side of Soldier Sulley rather than focusing so much time in the physical training of his Navi body. The spiritual side of his character was lost by spending so much time in the physical tests of the Navi and in the battle scene at the end. It only re-enforced the idea that the only way to peace is through war and with mother nature as the oldest warrior in this on-going cycle of death, you are sure to win. One scene in particular which grated against the films goal of glorifying spirituality in the warrior was when Jake Sulley, in his Navi body, had to pass the last test of manhood. A hard scene to analyze since I am a lover of dragons but there is no denying that his fight with the dragon which aimed at representing the ultimate oneness between man and beast, only re-enforced his military friends idea of domination. Especially when after connecting with his dragon Jake Sulley says, "Now you're mine."

The Message

My opinion of why audience members loved this film has to do with two things; the Message and the Structure in which it was delivered. Because even after saying all that above, I liked Jake Sulley, I was hoping throughout the film that he would pass all the tests, that he would save the Navi, and that he would find a way to be with the princess. The cliches did bother me but the overall message hit home and hit harder than the annoyance of the typical stereotypes. We are all connected to mother nature, even without having fiber optics inputs, and we are killing her. Beauty, science, culture, intelligence, discovery, life, all of it has taken a backseat to profit and the only check to our moral behavior is the bottom line. This is a message extremely relevant to what is happening in our society now, it's a worldwide issue, it affects everyone, and we all know that unlike in Avatar, mother nature is not going to sort out our problems. Avatar presents us with the first step, consciousness, awareness, realization, respect, love, and the will to sacrifice everything for the improvement of the world and all its citizens. The next step is action and I feel we are all at this next step, ready to move, ready to replace our destructive habits with harmonious ones that will bring back the balance between people and nature.

The Structure

In order for action to occur we need to be brave, courageous, daring, innovative, radiant, and confident in our destiny. James Cameron used these spiritual qualities to illumine the monotonous life that Jake Sulley had before discovering the Navi. He is what we call an unlikely hero, arriving in the film as much handicapped physically as emotionally whose only goal was based in the material, a new pair of legs. He ended the film with noble goals and a whole new lifestyle. This is an element that many of us feel daily, that we were created for more than just this life, that we were created to do great things, and have exciting adventures. If we look at the way Jake Sulley changed we might be able to find a formula that will help us find our own personal adventure. He was offered an opportunity to serve. Although his motives were misguided they eventually found the right path. His beliefs and ideals were challenged. What once held the most importance in his life now seemed insignificant, and what once was non- existent in his life now became the center and foundation for all his thoughts and actions.

The Magic of Avatar

Movies allow us to escape reality, to take a breathe and forget what is outside of the theater, and this is one of the reasons why we see them. But Avatar, while at the same time being entertaining, suspenseful, and action-packed, paralleled the issues and problems faced on Pandora with our own world and in effect kept us as much in the present as in our imaginations. I feel we love Avatar, not because we escaped, but rather we imagined confronting our problems with courage, with determination, and with confidence in our own nobility. If we continue down this path I think we will all find each other moving in the same direction, working together for the betterment of family life, friends, strangers, and the world.

Easy Recipes - Ecuadorian Sazon

Since I moved into my new home, many experiments have taken place in the kitchen, especially with 3 hungry youth that live close by. I'm really thankful to have these youth around, for their humor, their service orientated attitudes, and, of course, their presence which has subsequently challenged me to cook something good for everyone. This is probably the last thing I thought I'd be writing in a blog but here are some recipes in case you're interested =)

1. Chunky, Creamy, Veggie mmm Soup

8 potatoes - peeled and cut into medium sized squares
4 carrots - same as above
3 pieces of corn -cut into thirds
2 spoonfuls of garlic - cut into very fine pieces
2 limes
2 spoonfuls of oregano
1 spoonful of salt
1 spoonful of pepper


Boil some water and place the Potatoes, Carrots, Corn, and a little oil and salt in the pot for 15 - 20 minutes. Take the corn out a little earlier and place in a bowl for later use.

Drain hot water into a separate pot, and put carrots and potatoes in a bowl. With a thick wooden spoon, mash the potatoes and carrots to your liking. I like to have chuncky carrots in my soup so I mask the potatoes a bit more than the carrots.

Place this mesh of potatoes and carrots back into the pot and fill with water until consistency is to your liking. Remember a bit of this water will be boiled off in the next step.

Boil soup for the next 20 minutes on low heat. Please immediately in the pot Corn, Oregano, Salt, Pepper, and squeezed Limes.

Get a large bowl and spoon. Enjoy!


2. Scarlet Strawberry Jam

2lbs of Strawberries
4 spoonfuls of brown sugar
2 limes

It's so easy! Clean the strawberries, cut off the green leaves, and place into boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain the water. Blend the strawberries with Sugar and squeezed Lime juice.

Place mix into a pot with 1/8 cup.

Boil for the next 15 - 20 minutes or until consistency is reached. This is the crucial part since you have to constantly have to stir the jam so as not to burn the jam.

That makes a small jar of dark red strawberry jam, double, triple, quadruple recipe to make more.


3. Muddy Mangoes

6 Mangoes
1/4 cup of Peanut Butter
1/4 cup Honey

This is salad dressing. Peel the mangoes, blend them up. Put the Mangoes, Peanut Butter and Honey in a jar and mix them together. That is some good dressing.

4. Ognam ecuas

10 Mangoes
1/2 cup of chopped white onions
1/4 cup of Soy Sauce
1/4 stick of Butter

A simple sauce to soak anything in. Peel, cut, and mash mangoes in a large tuberware container. Pour in soy sauce and onions. Mix together and place food article in the middle of all that. Make it is covered and place top on tuberware. Let soak for a few hours and cook all together.

Serve over rice.

5. The Classic Green Breakfast

5 Plantains
2 eggs
1/2 lb of cheese

Cut the plantains into 1/4 inch pieces. Heat up oil. Place plantains into the pan stir, stir, and stir. Plantains will cook quickly, 5 minutes or so. Take out plantains and place in bowl. Cover top of plantains with grated cheese. Fry eggs in leftover oil. Whatever style you like but runny eggs is the best because the hot yoke pours over the cheese and plantains which gives the dish an excellent flavor.

Serves two.


Let me know if anyone tries these and forgive me if I haven't been clear enough. If that's the case though just comment and I'll fill in the blanks!

Provecho!

Thoughts on Pioneering

Pioneering

When people come by my house and see a white guy living on a dirt road in a small rural area they usually give me a strange look like… is he lost? One day a couple of ladies stopped in front and starting yelling, “Buenas! Buenas!” which basically means, “Hello! Anybody home?” When I came to the door I saw the surprise on her face and she sort of paused…

Is the owner home?
Yea.
Could you get them?
You’re talking to him.

It turned out her friend was pregnant and they wanted some star fruit that grows on the trees in my yard. So when they came in they obviously were curious, what’s going on, why are you living here? I tried to explain that I was a pioneer but the only way they understood was if I used the word “missionary”. After they left I felt a bit unsatisfied with my explanation so this is my own personal clarification of why I came to Ecuador, please feel free to comment.

Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith (1921 – 1957) chose his words with great care. For the word pioneer, he used surcadores. Forgive the Spanish but I’m living in Ecuador and sometimes I just can’t think of the English word. Surcar means to plough, so surcadores would mean something like ploughers. I think this word unlocks a new meaning for the many souls who have left their homes in order to bring a new message or new piece of knowledge to the world. A farmer plows in order to prepare the soil for the crops he hopes to harvest for the next season. There is a period of hard work because the quality of your fruits and vegetables depend on this beginning stage. Patience and care is needed as the crops begin to grow. Then you enjoy the success of your harvest but that’s not the last stage. The last stage is when the fruits and vegetable give back to the land in order to produce the next harvest. This is a great analogy for why I am pioneering here in Chongon, Ecuador.

Briefly, the project I’m working on falls under the description of social action projects. As of now we are calling it the Media Project whose aim is no less than to influence the majority of Chongon (where I live) with positive messages that will reconnect people with their nobility and raise the consciousness of what it means to be advancing together towards a more united, a more peaceful existence. We spent months discussing and deepening on how to make positive media. Just the past week we produced our first fruit, in the form of an 11-minute video. We hope this fruit and many others will awaken or encourage the spiritual consciousness of the people here; who will then start producing their own fruits.


Progression

“Upon our efforts depends in very large measure the fate of humanity.”
–The Universal House of Justice, Wellspring of Guidance, p.120

One of the worst things that is happening in the world today is this prevailing feeling of powerlessness. People believe that the world is falling apart from something they cannot fix on their own. In part, it’s true that people with more resources and more material power have more responsibility to the environment, economy, education, etc, but it is our efforts combined together that decide the future. Everyone in the world comes from families. Individuals create families, families make up a community, communities make up a city, cities make up a state, states make up a nation, nations make up a country, and countries make up the world. By reconnecting the individual with their nobility, the world will change.

One of the responsibilities of being a pioneer is carrying a job to its end. I am here, mostly learn with the community, and help with the empowerment of the individual so that we may realize our potential as noble human beings. This may take a long time, perhaps years, decades, or centuries. I’ve committed only two years to the project for a number of personal reasons. Everyday I’m reminded of the importance of working here and those reasons are slowly diminishing. For as Shoghi Effendi so adeptly states,

"Neither the threatening world situation, nor any consideration of lack of material resources, of mental equipment, of knowledge, or of experience-desirable as they are-should deter any prospective pioneer teacher from arising…”

In that brief statement he touches on all of my reasons. I pray I have the strength, determination, and courage to see the project to its end.

A World Community

This entry is a bit long, but there is still so much more to talk about. Outside of my responsibilities to the Media Project, I have my relationship with the community of Chongon. This is the other part of being a pioneer, which resonates more with the position of a Missionary. As stated in the dictionary, a Christian Missionary promotes the word of Jesus Christ, well a Bahá’í pioneer promotes the word of Baha’u’llah, however the manner in which Bahá’í’s teach their beliefs greatly differ from that of other religions. Bahá’í’s believe it is everyone’s choice to investigate what uplifts his or her soul and therefore it is not permissible to sermonize, moralize, criticize, or proselytize the Faith. Another teaching that Baha’u’llah has given us is that the Bahá’í Faith is not for us Bahá’í’s. He states,

“The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity.”

The idea that religion should not be the cause of disunity seems obvious and yet it creates the strongest divisions in the world. I understand when people say “I’ve lost faith” or they don’t believe in “organized religion” because of what’s going on in the world. However, the Bahá’í Faith takes the individual’s relationship to religion beyond this barrier and says that’s fine be wary of those things that cause dissension and discord, but let’s work together, as one, towards the advancement of the spiritual and material progression of humanity.

To try to wrap this up, because I feel there are a lot of deep themes here which would take a whole lot more time and discussion to fully reveal their significance, I’ll end with another quote from Shoghi Effendi about the environment in which we live. I used this quote in my Master’s project and it’s a good reminder of my hopes for the Media project and how I view my relationship to the community in Chongon.

“We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions.”
-Shoghi Effendi

Beginning life in Ecuador

Beginning life in Ecuador

During one of my lower moments I lost patience and asked the official serving us, "Why does this process have to be so complicated and so disorganized?" He confidently replied, "Because that confusion gives us officials time to deal with all of the paperwork." That outrageous reply, in retrospect, seems sort of perfect to me. It brings up a few ethical questions. How does the country's citizens feel about being purposefully misguided in order for the government to organize itself? Blatant misdirection leads to disrespect and more lack of trust. Are the patient and enduring people of Guayaquil being taken advantage of here? I sort of wish the answer was more like "I'm sorry, we know it is confusing but we're trying to improve the system."

I decided to post some simple steps for those future guests that would like to avoid the confusion. Every American is allowed a tourist Visa which grants three months stay. These steps are for those that have already acquired a long term Visa and need to register it in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Step 1
Go to a building called "Dirreccion General de Extranjería" in downtown Guayaquil
-Ask for "la Autorización de Pago" (you will need this later)

Step 2
Leave the building and got to a Paper and Copy store
-Copy Passport pages (Information, Arrival Stamp, Temporary Visa)
-Copy Visa Certification sheet

Step 3
Get a friend to write a letter of recommendation with passport number, class, and type of visa included.

Step 4
Go to Banco Internacional
-Pay "la Autorización de Pago" ($10)
-Make sure you get the receipt

Step 5
Bring all paperwork back to the "Dirreccion General de Extranjería"
-Pick up passport the next day

After all this, you will then need to register for a Census, which to my understanding is a temporary ID which you can carry around instead of your passport. This process is a lot less painful.

Step 1
Copy Passport pages (Information, Arrival Stamp, Temporary Visa)
Copy an electric bill of where you are staying

Step 2
Go to a building called "Inmigración'
-Hand in paperwork

Naming a Blog

Naming a Blog

An hour or two spent researching which blog fits my preference between Wordpress and Blogger. A few hours more trying to figure out the navigation, templates, and configuration options. A few hours trying to make a picture for the title bar with the correct dimensions. I do feel like Majnun, searching through handfuls of sand with the panorama of the whole desert in front of me.

Briefly, the title "Majnun's Manifest" comes from an ancient Persian and Arabic lore about "true human love bordering on the divine". There are many versions of this tale. One of these is recounted in a book called The Seven Valleys where it explains "Majnun" was the title given to a man who fell in love with an Arabian princess called "Laylí" but then was denied the right to marry her. This drives him somewhat insane and he runs off into the desert. During his time in the desert a few travelers come across him sifting through the dust and an intriguing and mystical conversation takes place:

Travelers- "What doest thou?"
Majnun- "I seek for Laylí."
Travelers- "Alas for thee! Laylí is of pure spirit, and thou seekest her in the dust!"
Majnun- "I seek her everywhere; haply somewhere I shall find her."

Although Majnun is probably hallucinating from sun poisoning and dehydration what he says is very profound and enlightening. Without the act of searching it is impossible to find anything. What seems crazy to these travelers is really a noble cause. The author of The Seven Valleys, Baha'u'llah, after re-telling this story states, "The true seeker hunteth naught but the object of his quest, and the lover hath no desire save union with his beloved." Not until we give up everything, tear down those things which veil our sight, can a true search begin.

The fact that Majnun means "insane" is another interesting aspect to this story. Why is he labeled as insane? The travelers mock his attempts at finding Laylí. Yet Majnun's confidence seems to spawn from the act of searching and not so much from the goal. This is quite a revolutionary thought even for this age where we are judged by what we have and don't have. If the act is more important than the goal, how would our lives be different?

Finally, Majnun and Laylí could be interpreted as many things. A romance story. An insane man's illusion. A search for meaning in life. For me, this story speaks about Truth and the sometimes difficult road one must undertake to find it. Truth is all around us but without patience and the act of searching, it will never be found. This is why I choose Majnun to be the gate keeper of my Blog; a perfect symbol for our quest to Truth.