i am

There is a great documentary out that I think everyone would like, even if you're not into documentaries. It was directed by Tom Shadyac, a name I was not familiar with. Yet the titles of his movies Ace Ventura, Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor, Patch Adams, Bruce Almighty, etc were all familiar to me.

I probably wouldn't have heard of this film if it weren't for my Netflix "suggestions for you" page. The trailer looked amazing so I put it on top of my queue. I was blown away after watching it and watched it again two days later. I hated to return it and have decided to buy it. It's a keeper of a movie.

The film centers on the result of a life-changing experience Tom Shadyac had. After a serious bicycle accident, he developed a form off post-concussion depression, making him question his whole life and taking away his will to live. One day the depression inexplicably left him and he decided to grab a crew of 4 people and scout the world for the greatest scientists and other great thinkers to find out "[w]hat is wrong with our world and what can we do about it." The result is I AM.

The initial part of the film (his great success is Hollywood, the accident, depression, etc) only takes about the first five minutes. The rest is dedicated to interviewing others. Some of the more recognizable names are Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Desmond Tutu.

Some of the themes he focuses on are the following: whether humans are, by nature, competitive or cooperative; how science has proven we are actually connected to others; and whether our hearts or brains are the real center of our selves.

It sounds a little heavy and/or New-Agey. It's not. In fact, it's quite entertaining and the viewer rides the movie like a surfer on a wave. It's all backed by science, which makes it all the more mind blowing. And it's just fun to watch! Can't beat that combo!

One of the amazing things that stuck with me was that our vagus nerve is what makes us connect to all other living things. If you've ever watched those videos of returning soldiers surprising their children with their return, you probably felt great emotion at watching them, quite possibly tearing up. (They make me cry every single time.) The vagus nerve makes us empathize with others and want to help them. The documentary shows many examples of people reaching out to others.

While it's not an animal rights movie, the evidence garnered from his talks with these great thinkers all point to a compassionate lifestyle. The vegus nerve, for example, would explain why so many people don't want to know where their meat comes from. Why people get distraught at even the mention of the conditions of animals farmed for their flesh or their skins. Because our very nature is to empathize with the pain of others, and we don't want to think that our actions cause this pain in others. So most of us avoid it altogether, viewing it as Pandora's Box. Because once it's open, you can't turn back. You can't stuff it away. You have to look at it and make new choices. And "new" to many people is scary and overwhelming. (If that's you, please see babysteps.)

A great quote from one of the interviewees (I forgot to write down who said it):

"All of life is our biological kin. To me, the most amazing thing about the Human Genome Project was that it turns out over 99% of the genes in a human being are identical to the genes in our nearest relatives, the Great Apes. That the vast majority of genes in ourselves are identical to the genes in our pet dogs and cats  ... They are our relatives."

As far as changing our world to treat animals the way we'd want to be treated, consider the words of Desmond Tutu, (delivered with that wide smile and wonderful, lilting voice)

"How does change happen? It happens because you are concerned. And you are concerned. And you are concerned. And you have a coordination that becomes this movement. And it overcomes apartheid."

Rollin Mccraty, who works at HeartMath, notes, "What we do at the individual level really does affect the global environment."

So here is the trailer for the film.

And here is an interview with Tom Shadyac on the making of the movie. And I'm not going to ruin the fun for you, but you MUST watch it, if only to see the yogurt experiment and what scientists discovered when they observed a herd of Red Deer.

After doing a little research for this post, I found that Oprah had done an interview with Tom when the film came out. You can read about that here.

I hope you treat yourselves soon and watch this! I'm told it's On Demand and also showing on OWN. And, as I mentioned before, you can get it on Netflix.

After you've seen it, I'd love to hear your thoughts below! Nobody I know (except for Ryan and my friend Jack and his fiance) have seen it and I'm just dying to talk about it with others! Enjoy!

"Why do you suppose you like animals so much?"

Recently, I heard the piece quoted below and haven't been able to get it out of my head. An animal activist, Laura Moretti is asked this question and her answer is just took my breath away.

I always admire people that can debate topics that are close to my heart. I'm hopelessly inept at debating and have always avoided doing it because I get tongue-tied and brain-tied so easily. I don't like getting into political conversations, even though I have strong opinions, because I just end up doing a disservice to the the issue/person I believe in with my lack of ability to think on my toes. So when things start to get heated, I'll either try to change the subject or will unobtrusively leave the room to help with the dishes or some other innocuous chore. And sometimes it maddens me because I feel like I have important things to say, but I just can't seem to process information quickly. (I can process like a computer when I'm in a room of 26 third-graders for seven hours, but at the dinner table? Forget it.) I would have made a very poor lawyer.

But I'm grateful for people like Laura who are able to put into words what I often can not. 

"Why do you suppose you like animals so much?" was the million-dollar question put to me Christmas Eve (and one I hadn't provoked). I knew my family was expecting me to say something like, "I like animals because they're cute and cuddly and furry and fun to play with." But instead I said, "I like animals because they are honest."

My observation triggered a facetious comment from one of my brothers. “About what?"--as if honesty were merely about telling the truth, and everyone knows animals can't talk! His notation was met with hearty laughter; for once, they thought they'd repaid me for all the discomfort I'd caused them at other family gatherings.

"I like that animals don't pretend to be someone they're not," I continued in my reply, hushing the crowd. "To quote a phrase, 'Dogs don't lie about love.' Animals don't fake their feelings. I like that they're emotionally fearless."

We were lounging on sofas and armchairs after our feast and present opening. Coffee was being served, so I seized the opportunity. "I like animals," I added, "because they only take out of life what they need. They don't abuse their environment, annihilate species, pollute their water, contaminate the air they breathe. They don't build weapons of mass destruction and use them against others-particularly members of their own species. I like animals because they have no use for those things, or for war or terrorism. They don't build nations around genocide."

My uncle seemed momentarily lost in thought. He had been born and raised in New York City. "That's because they don't know any better," a brother-in-law argued. "They don't do those things because they don't know how."

"A pride of lions doesn't get together," I countered him, "and decide how to exterminate zebras-their very source of nourishment. I don't think it's because they don't know how. I think it's because it's counter-productive." They laughed. 

"I also like animals," I continued," because they don't punish themselves for their perceived inadequacies. They don't dwell on things of the past, nor use them as excuses for behavior in the present. And they don't plan to live some day in the future, they live today, this moment, fully, completely, and purely. I like animals because they live their lives with so much more freedom than humans live theirs."

"That's because they don't think," one of my cousins offered.

"Is that the difference?" I wondered. "'I think therefore I'm cruel, destructive, insecure, abusive?' You meant to say they don't think the way we think." The room had become strangely quiet. I was amazed at how closely my family was listening, despite the occasional grunt to the contrary.

"I like animals because they don't bow down to imaginary gods they've created, nor annihilate each other in the name of those gods; gods, they say, who are all-knowing and all-loving and just. I like animals because they only know how to give unconditional love and implicit trust. I mean, animals either extend those things to you or they don't; there are no shades of gray. They have the best of what makes us human and, as one observer put it, "none of our vices.'" "And thank God," someone injected.

"Lastly," I added, remembering why I was an animal rights activist, "Animals are the most victimized living creatures on earth; more than children, more than women, more than people of color. Our prejudice enables us to exploit and use them, as scientific tools and expendable commodities, and to eat them. We do to them any atrocity our creative minds can summon. We justify our cruelties; we have to or we can't commit them. I like animals because they don't do to themselves or to others the things we do to them. And they don't make excuses for unethical actions because they don't commit unethical acts."

"And finally," I finished, "I like animals because they're not hypocrites. They don't say one thing and do another. They are, as I've said, honest. Animals-not humans-are the best this planet has to offer." And, interestingly enough, despite my soapbox rant, not a one of them made a snide comment or a hint of laughter. The conversation actually rolled into shared stories of animals they've known, stories of animal loyalty and intelligence, their humor and innocence. And it was me who'd become the listener with the occasional comment: "Now, if only humans could only be, well, like animals." And that is why I fight the good fight; I rise on behalf of the best among us.

The Delightful Lightness of Being

So I've been eating a plant-based diet for about a month and a half now and I'm quite taken aback at how good I feel. Lighter is definitely a good word. No more "backups." I never feel that "lordy-I-ate-too-much"-ouch, but have a very pleasant satiated feeling and never get those low-blood sugar MUST-EAT! attacks anymore. The best part, though, aside from how good food tastes and that lightness, is feeling whole. I always felt in my gut I was a hypocrite, and therefore only part of who I was capable of being. I loved animals and felt very protective of their welfare, but I was consuming them from an industry that, deep down, I knew wasn't treating them well. But like so many I said, "Don't tell me about it. I don't want to know!"

With each passing year of shopping at the supermarket, though, I'd feel "wrong" standing at the deli counter ordering a few slices of Virginia ham and Swiss cheese. Not wrong enough to forgo buying and consuming the meat, of course. But it always seemed like it was that moment when I had a choice and I walked through the door of denial. I'd peruse the chicken sausage and try to push away that unnameable dishonest feeling, like I was wearing clothes that were way too small. Hindsight is 20/20, of course. I was knee-deep in denial, convincing myself that I bought organic "humanely raised" meat. "Yes, it's terrible that an animal had to die, but at least it was quick."

Reality knocked those assumptions out the window. It is not quick. It is not kind. Humane? I'm not sure what that word means any more if it describes what I've seen in my search for the truth of what happened behind those closed doors. (Paul McCartney said, "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.")

So what made me want to know the truth? It was really the sum of many factors. I had always loved Ellen DeGeneres and was curious about her conversion to veganism, especially since she had always been vocal about loving her hamburgers. I could see cutting meat, but what was wrong with eggs and milk? Who could give up cheese, for crying out loud?? I started exploring vegan blogs, just to see what was there. I certainly wasn't going to commit to it, but I was admittedly curious. On one of of those blogs, however, were ten minutes total of scenes from the documentary Earthlings (along with deleted scenes) and I watched it. What I saw simply horrified me. There's no other word for it. And, in an instant, I was done. No more meat, no more eggs, no more dairy. (If you're wondering why not dairy or eggs, I'll get into that at a later date, but suffice to say that they are some of the worst offenders. And all the animals end up slaughtered in the end.) When I later smelled a whiff of bacon cooking and tmy initial thought was "yum!" I simply had to think back to some of those scenes, and the smell instantly stopped enticing me. 

Interview of Ellen DeGeneres

I told my husband that night that I had seen these images and I couldn't be a part of that cruelty any more. Much to my surprise, he said he'd try out the diet with me for one month. I was pretty floored, as he has always loved his meat. (I had already been wondering, "How are we going to do this? Do we make two separate dinners each night?" So he set my fears to rest.)

I ultimately did watch Earthlings, though I had been dreading it. I decided one day I was home sick to just watch it in 5-minute increments; 5 minutes one day, 5 minutes the next, and so on. After the first 5 minutes, though, I couldn't tear myself away, even with my finger on the pause button, ready to strike. I felt I owed it to the animals I had eaten and who were being slaughtered every day to simply watch it, as they were the ones who actually had to endure it. The trailer, which is not heavy but quite beautiful, is below. (The whole movie was made available for free on youtube. The producers want as many people as possible to see it.)

Trailer (no gore here) of the documentary Earthlings

So that's the beginning of the story.

I tend to love researching a topic, so I've been reading up a ton. Much much more to follow ...

Peaceful Eating!

~Katrina