But seriously guys, Netflix has an excellent documentary selection.
On Monday night Kyle and I watched Blackfish and last night we watched Bully. I was so emotionally drained after watching each film. I heaved with sobs during each documentary, and when they were over, I knew that it was time to write. You lucky people, you.
I hope you guys have seen these films. They are amazing. Painful to watch, but really amazing. If you haven't seen them, Blackfish pretty much "exposes" how incredibly awful SeaWorld is in respect to their care of Killer Whales. In general, animals in captivity, I can't even... The documentary goes into detail about the lifespan of one of SeaWorld's most valued whales, Tilikum, and his many attacks on different trainers. Additionally, Blackfish shows SeaWorld separating mother whales from their babies, whale hunting, and the nature of the captivity of the whales. Synopsis done. Click the link and watch it on Netflix. Bully is a documentary that follows five different families who have children that deal with bullying on a daily basis. Several of the families had children who ended their lives as a result of bullying at ages as young as 11 years old. Heartbreaking. Watch them, you will weep.
I have always been convicted by the treatment of animals. I tend to be so overly empathetic sometimes that I think that I get more sad, or more emotional, than the person, animal, or object at risk. I mean, seriously. Sometimes I think it's a curse, but I truly do recognize the beauty in my convictions. I became a vegetarian when I was a sophomore in college and I still rock the veg life. I gave up meat for Lent as a response to a Food and Sustainability course I was taking and never looked back. I told myself I wasn't some animal rights activist, I did it for the health reasons. I grew up being told that those "tree huggers" who were for the ethical treatment of animals cared more for the animals than they did for the people. False. I don't believe that. Why can't we love people and animals? Or living things in general? I know many of you reading this are on your carnivore grind every day, and that's fine, but just keep reading. I'm not about to call you out. I started reading and watching more films to figure out where I really stood on this whole eating meat thing. Many say I fell into the deep, dark pit of propaganda, and maybe I did, but I just can't deny the facts. The best source I read to give me the facts was Eating Meat by Jonathan Safran Foer. I have encouraged so many to read this book. The usual response is: "I don't want to because I know that I will want to stop eating meat."
..........okay. Screaming in my head, "WHY DON'T YOU WANT TO KNOW?!" Knowing is my style. I don't want to support the unethical ways that meat is raised in the United States. With that being said, I am open to paying sustainable farmers a pretty penny for their hard, ethical work, I just can't afford it. I can't support zoos. I won't. Everything turns into the dollar and it's heartbreaking. By making small changes I truly believe that one person can help be the change. You are not too small, and I am not too small.
Alright, so, I'm also into planet Earth, but not as much as I would like to be. I truly appreciate sustainable living, but I find myself being lazy about it. I do things like put aluminum foil over a metal baking pan so that I don't have to wash the pan. I do it with a guilty heart, but I still do it. I produce about two bags of trash a week from just myself, though thankfully Boone has an amazing recycling program. Sometimes if the weather is super gross, I'll drive down the hill instead of walk and pay $5.00 to park in the parking garage. I love my planet and I care about the animals, but in general I care about living things. I want to be a person who acts on my strong convictions, but I find it to be so incredibly hard. Maybe you feel the same way.
Hippie: a usually young person who rejects the established social customs (such as by dressing in an unusual way or living in a commune) and who opposes violence and war; especially : a young person of this kind in the 1960s and 1970s.
Why do we throw this word around all the time? Why do people who are about the well being of our planet and of other living things have to be called hippies? How could the people in these documentaries hear the desperate cries of the mother whale and still separate her from her precious baby? How can these elementary, middle, and high school students be so incredibly cruel to their classmates? How?! It may be the most cliche phrase in the history of ever, but all you need is love. Love has to be missing for these things to take place. This is so incredibly sad. We are all guilty of lacking love every single day. It's hard. We're human and our moods swing. We get irritable and a lot of the time we are all about us. I loved the quote at the end of Bully, "It starts with one." So true. One person can be the change, one person can make a difference.
Nehemiah 9:6 says, "You alone are Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you."
This planet is not our own. It's like this, if a friend has a beach house in Hawaii and they tell you that you can go stay there for the week. They encourage you to make yourself at home, but yet you are careful. You recognize that the house is actually not your own, and when it is time to leave you make sure that everything was just as it was when you arrived. The same goes for this planet. We must protect God's beautiful works as though we are only guests staying in His Hawaiian beach house.
Love. You don't have to be some "hippie" to care about this earth and all that God created. Value our resources and love all living things. How can we reject God's beautiful work by subjecting it to such poor treatment? It seems like a smack in the face, like kicking a hole through a canvas an artist worked so hard on.
When Jesus walked this earth just as we do now, He was so incredibly gentle, so caring. He treaded lightly and he exuded love. It's what Jesus did best. It's like all over the bible. Weird right?
Judgement isn't anyones job here on earth. Yes, ,we will ultimately be judged by God in the end and our eternal destinations will be decided. When I'm asked if I fed His lambs, and loved my enemies I don't want to stand before Him and be like....Oh wait, God. You were serious about that? I want to love my neighbor and serve my city. I want to pour love out the way that Jesus did. I want to take up the mission of God's true church. There are so many broken people in situations that I can't even wrap my mind around, broken people who are lonely, broken people who are ridiculed, broken people living in extreme poverty that it is just simply omission of God's word not to love them and to help them. My prayer is that I can act upon my convictions.
The principle of God's immense love for us is one of the oldest in the books. Pour it out into His creation and all living things.
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