I Am What's Right With the World

This blog post has been about 6 months in the making...

I actually decided to start this blog around that time, when I had just watched Tom Shadyac's documentary film I Am for the first time. I was so excited to have been able to attend class the day that he Skyped in to talk to the Vocation and Arts class about his film and his vocation as a filmmaker. I was so intrigued by the answers he gave that I couldn't wait to watch the film that my fellow classmates had already seen. It turned out to be an inspiring film that challenged me to think about what I can do to help fix the problems in the world.

I found it kind of funny that something I wrote about in my reflection 4 or 5 days ago was actually something that Shadyac addressed in the Skype interview session. I found a critique of the film online in which the viewer expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of specific, practical solutions that the film offered. In the Skype interview, Shadyac told us that he stayed away from the specifics because each person knows what steps to take in their own lives. He challenges us to think about what we can do with our time and talents to help the world. His lack of specificity opens us up to unending possibility and allows us to make a deep personal commitment to justice and a peaceful world.

I loved the way that Shadyac described his vocation as a filmmaker. He prides himself on telling stories that provoke, challenge, and inspire. This documentary definitely did just that, but how did he do this in the movies with fictional characters and contrived plots? He said that instead of coming right out and telling people that they are selfish, he can create a character who is selfish so that people can look at this and see the negative attitudes reflected in themselves. Seeing the implications of the character's behavior may provide clarity for their own situation. And seeing this character change for the better, in the end, may encourage the viewer to do the same in their own life.  

The name of my blog actually came from the film's conclusion, when Shadyac shifted from the question "What's wrong with the world?" to that of "What's right with the world?" The answer to the first question was one of personal responsibility, "I am." It is our hope that we can come to be able to answer the second question in just the same way. We are all called to be what's right in the world.

The video below is one of my all time favorites. It is a poem by Jonathon Reed that shows both what is wrong with the world and what can be right if we turn it around. I think it directly relates to the message of Shadyac's film.  

And, I thought this image really drives home the fact that we are all connected and one!