Life as I know it

Life has been chaotic lately. Well, not chaotic - nothing abnormal or strange has happened to force me to problem solve & adapt to any situation. It's been busy. Very, insanely busy. Since I work in retail (and after the Christmas gift shopping comes the Christmas gift returning) I have been working more hours than normal & my "me" time has been spent just relaxing. I have today off work. Good news is that I was initially hired as a temporary, seasonal employee but have been hired on as a permanent staff member (nothing has been made official but there has been strong indication). I do like this job, it just leaves very little time for regenerating/refueling my "dealing with people" & "socializing" quotas. 'Tis the life of an introvert, I s'pose. Being around people stirs up much nervous energy that becomes overwhelming & unbearable after a certain point; it's exhausting.

Since I've had very little time to myself, I have had to decide what to do with that time so I can be productive. So far I've been unproductive. But I have noticed little, seemingly insignificant thought patterns emerge. Stress has potential to prioritize your time. I guess it's not so much stress but more the passage of time that has potential to make a person realize what they really value, enjoy, find pleasure doing, et al. (which, consequently, can be stressful if you don't know much about yourself or if you reject/don't embrace those things for whatever reasons). What have I decided to do? Write, read, create & embrace life.

Oh, and I saw Avatar. I cried like a young child. I was happy living in my little Canadian world where I can ignore the selfish, ignorant things that I detest (until I saw Avatar and District 9). Note that I do what I can within my existence & my limited influence to improve the world around me. When customers come into the store and buy movies that have philosophical undertones (e.g. District 9), I try to strike up a conversation about it so they can recognize those undertones & see what I saw in that movie. For the record, I saw District 9 as a reflection of humanity: how humans treat any being that is different. I have only been able to talk to a few people about it since it's been pretty damn but I will be talking to more people about the undertones of movies such as the two that I have mentioned.

Back to Avatar. Yes, I cried. I cried & I shook like a child - similar to how you would have an emotional break down if you experienced something traumatic. The movie was ... amazing & clear. But apparently it wasn't clear to the entire audience. When we were leaving the theater, a young woman approached a young man & asked him what he thought of the movie. His answer: "It was OK. The graphics were OK and the story line was broken. But it was OK." I was stunned at this answer (mainly because it had an emotional impact on my mind). How could that person not have understood the same message that I had seen so loud & clear?! It blew my mind! How could he not have heard that the Na'vi tribe was referred to as "people" but the humans were never once (as far as I can recall) referred to as people. And, in my opinion, to be referred to as a person is a compliment: it means you're sentient, self aware, aware of your impact upon the world, etc..

... Or maybe I just saw too much in the movie ... Who knows! Only the writer knows what his intention was. But I definitely know what the effect was.