Recently, I watched the movie that everybody is talking about, “Don’t Look Up” at our friend’s home here in Powell River.

A girl who is a PhD candidate discovered a comet which is rapidly approaching planet earth, and calculated that there is a high probability of colliding with earth in approximately 6 months time.

The story was utterly and depressingly realistic. In fact, I have heard that dinosaurs went extinct because of collision of a comet, which created the Ice Age by a huge volume of ash covering the earth blocking the Sun for a long time. How can you be sure it could never happen again? The PhD student and her professor reported this news to the world, and people’s reactions, when they heard this, were amazing. Most of them didn’t believe it. They didn’t take it seriously and laughed. Some business people used the story to make money. Some politicians used the story for their own political gains. Most people just did nothing….even when it became clear that this was truly going to happen. People are unbelievably short sighted and self centered….so depressing and sickening.

I have a tendency to take things on a personal level. My thinking somehow doesn’t easily engage in the direction of social justice or political reformation when I watch movies, dramas, or read novels. I’d rather take the story personally, and think in relation to myself and my life. This movie was not an exception. I started thinking seriously what I would do if I got to know that every being on the earth go extinct in 6 months. I will die, and everybody dies, and everything will be destroyed in 6 months.

Since I don’t have any social status anyway, I wouldn’t be caring what people would think of me. Since everybody dies in 6 months and there will be no life anyway, what would be the use of having money? If I die in 6 months, my health wouldn’t mean much, as long as I would keep myself reasonably healthy for 6 months….might as well eat everything I love as much as I want, do/get everything I want as much as I want….

Wait…. but there are 6 months. I’m not dying right now. Maybe I can spend my money on making my loved ones happy….? I would fly to Hawaii, Lions Bay, and Japan to hold my children, grandchildren, and my dad and my sister as tight as I can…? I would fly to Japan and invite all my family to stay just one last night in a heavenly beautiful hot spring inn…? I would write letters after letters like crazy, letting people know how much I appreciate them, how much I love them…? I would definitely treasure and mindfully live every moment I would be with Neil and our dogs.

As I’m writing this, I have noticed something so stunningly disturbing. I am just as self centered as everybody in the movie. I am thinking of my own beloved family and friends, treasuring my own beloved life and time…..what about all the people who are not directly connected to me and to my life?

It made me re-realize how wonderful my friend “A” is, tirelessly working and actually doing things to improve lives of people who are living in poverty, and “H” who is actually doing so much to bring awareness to people and lobbying to protect vulnerable lives of animals.

つい最近、ここパウエルリバーの友人宅で、今話題になっているドント・ルック・アップ　Don’t Look Up という映画を観た。

この物語は、博士号を取得するために勉強中のある女学生が、地球に接近中の彗星を発見して、複雑な計算の結果、約半年後に地球に衝突する可能性が強いことを人類に知らせようとする話。すごく現実的で、実にあり得る話だと思った。実際に恐竜が全滅したのも、彗星が地球に衝突したのが原因で、太陽の熱が厚い灰に遮られて氷河期に突入したからだと聞いたことがある。突然そんな彗星が現れても不思議ではないよね。でもその話を聞いた人間たちの反応がすごい。ほとんどの人たちが信じない。相手にしない。笑いとばす。その話を利用してお金儲けを企んだり、政治的に利用しようとしたり。信じられないほど短絡的で自己中心的。気分が悪くなるほど絶望的だった。

私は映画にしてもドラマにしても小説にしても、なぜかいつも社会的な見方をしないで、私的というか個人的な見方をしてしまう傾向にあるんだけど、今回もそう。地球が６ヶ月後に全滅するって知ったら、私だったらどうするだろうって真剣に考えてしまった。

どうせもともと何の地位もない私だから、今さら自分がどう思われようと関係ないし、６ヶ月後に全滅するんだったらお金なんてあったって仕方がない。６ヶ月後に何もかもなくなるなら健康的に生きても仕方がない？　好きなものをたらふく食べて、好きなものを買って、好きなことをして…

でも待てよ… 今すぐではなく６ヶ月あるんだから、私にとって一番大切な家族たちや友人たちが、最も幸せな６ヶ月を過ごせるようにお金を使うかな？日本に飛んで父や妹や甥姪を抱きしめる、ハワイとライオンズベイにとんで娘、息子、孫たちをかたくかたく抱きしめる… 家族みんなを日本に呼んで素晴らしい温泉宿で思い出に残る一晩を過ごす… 大事な人たちに手紙を書きまくる…感謝の気持ちを伝える…いかに愛しているかを伝える。ニールと犬たちと過ごす大切な大切な時間を噛み締める。

ここまで書いて、はたと思った。結局私も自分中心なことばかり考えているんじゃないか。映画の中の人たちと何も変わらないのではないか。自分にとって大切な人、大切なことばかりを考えて… 自分とつながりのない人や動物はどうするの？

改めて、貧困を改善する社会的な運動に一生懸命尽くしている友人「A」を始め、動物を守る運動をする友人「H」、素晴らしい尊敬すべき友人がまわりにいることに感謝した。見習わなければいけないと思った。