Wednesday 18 November 2015

Human

This is so humane and so beautiful a piece of work.

These days, much of the time my body hurts. Deep in my tissues, it hurts. And deep in my soul is sorrow, a slow tearing.


For the killing of the kindly Earth. For the loneliness of no one to share the things I love – place, religion, memory, certain kinds of beauty; a number of treasures in the store of my heart. For the bitter folly of our government. For the cynicism of the powers of our age. For the love of money, the root of death. For the contempt of other people – in which I , too, often enough indulge.

What we have done in the world is a deep, spreading bruise in my soul, always sore, always heavy. Not much makes it better.

The bombing in Paris, in Beirut, in Kenya. The toxic bursting of the dam in Brazil. And now the bombing of Syria. The bombing of everywhere, and the blaming – the whites, the blacks, the men, the women, the Muslims, the Christians, the Jews, the gays, the refugees … on and on. The restless futile seeking to ease pain by inflicting pain. An eye for an eye until the ground is squishy with eyeballs and no one can see where they’re going, slipping and falling, blind.

But sometimes, between chaos and indifference, bewilderment, fear and self-preservation, there slips something calm and beautiful; something well observed, compassionate, and not afraid of life. And it eases the pain in my body, and the pain in my soul.

Such is this film. Well done, oh well done, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, for this beautiful 
film. “Human”.







4 comments:

BLD in MT said...

Though I don't often watch films I shall have to give it a watch. We need to keep on reaffirming that there is love, humanity, compassion. There has to be another way than all this. Thank you for sharing your kind soul and for putting this work on my radar.

Pen Wilcock said...

If you watch it, I think you'll be glad you did. It isn't a story, so it's easy to watch part and leave it if you want to. But it's wonderful. x

Ganeida said...

I watched part 1 because the faces are fascinating. I am finding my desire to withdraw completely is growing. It hurts too much to watch the hatred, the insanity, the sheer stupidity of the world rage unchecked ~ & there is just so little I can do in concrete, practical ways. I am not a political activist so even protesting is out ~ too many people in too confined spaces. There is enough for everyone so long as none of us are greedy. *sigh*

Pen Wilcock said...

Ah - you speak my mind, friend! Last week, the protests against bombing Syria that took place in London - I so wanted to go, to stand up and be counted, but it's just too much for me. The world has got too big, too fast, too pressured for many of us. xx