There is a lot to be despondent about in this world. And we talk about many of these things on this blog—war, poverty and environmental destruction. As a matter of fact, I was going to write about a “hidden genocide” in Somalia before I decided to write about a more hopeful topic.
Yesterday, I rented "Wall-e" to watch with my family. I normally wouldn’t get much meaning from a Disney movie, but "Wall-e" is different. It is the story of a cute robot that is cleaning up Earth after humanity has spent the past 700 years on a giant spaceship because they (we) have left it uninhabitable.
One of the key parts of the movie was when the captain was learning about Earth and deciding whether he was going to follow this bold little robot and stand up for what was right, or whether he was going to continue living in his room temperature bubble he had created.
He finally decides: “I don’t want to survive, I want to live.” I think so much of what we do every day is doing what it takes just to survive. We do what is comfortable. What is normal. And I think we are called to do more than that. We are called to live, to thrive. And to make sure our actions are helping others to thrive as well--other people, animals, plants--the entire Earth. I was inspired by this little robot to move a little farther beyond fear and complicity toward hope and action! I hope you are inspired to do the same, either by Wall-e or by something else completely.
-Stephen Donahoe
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