30 days

you know the person who made the movie supersize me? well he has continued to produce short films called 30 days. Available to watch online. All of the ones we have seen are pretty thought provoking. my favorite one so far is when he went to live on the Navajo Reservation for 30 days. He came away from that experience thinking more deeply about what it means to have family values, to live in the present, to feel connected to and grateful for the gifts of life. It was also a very poignant story about the abilities of the native americans to survive the dismissal and minimization of their identity, culture, traditions and language. There were a couple other noteworthy films. One is about a devout LDS anti-gay family. They have a few young children. The mom agrees to live with a gay couple and their 3 adopted boys for 30 days. I wont spoil the outcome of the experiement for you. You will have to watch it. Another film was about a minuteman who agreed to live with a family of illegal immigrants for 30 days. Another was about a straight 25-year old anti-gay bible believing Christian man who agreed to live with a gay guy in the Castro district for 30 days. The outcome of both of those were very interesting. Very thought provoking.

Even though I appreciate watching this kind of journalism, one problem it tends to create for me is triggering memories of injustice. Experiences that were unequal to my resources at the time. I have to have a few days afterward to calm my thinking and stay connected with the present.