reverent silence

i've done a lot of different things today, but one event seems to have overshadowed the rest of my daily activities (midterms, lunch with rach, typical stuff)... cause today kathleen and i drove into baltimore to see Hotel Rwanda, a film about the genocide that took place in Rwanda about 11 years ago.


like.. its hard to even explain the feelings i have after watching that. having visited africa myself, and met people there, the images didn't seem all that far from my memory, and the people shown dead on the streets were easily relatives of faces I'd met and talked with. i really don't know what can be said in light of the genocide, in light of the UN that barely did anything, the tribe that got way out of hand, the people who were abandoned and left to die under individuals, human beings, that can't be too much different from you and i, because we're human too.

you just get this question like-- why didnt any one care enough to do something? ...and i guess we're all just selfish, that and we don't understand a life outside of our own.

i loved what kathleen said after the movie, when we'd finally lifted our heavy feelings out of the theater chairs and got to pushing coffee into a styrafoam cup... she said "it just makes me appreciate this" and i said... appreciate what? and she says, "life". which was great, because i didnt even really think of that at the time... and it really made me realize that people are affected in different ways based on what they can and can't relate to.

for me there was so much to relate to in that movie, having visited africa, that it was overwhleming and difficult and hallowing (as mike so eloquently suggested).

when i was driving home.. in my car by myself, i cried a little more, and had this strange thought that crying for the attrocity somehow helps heal it, like maybe the human race is in something together, and by recognizing one anothers struggles and considering them valid, we hurt only to grow in knowledge and understanding. it just made me think, that if a million people see this movie and are in some way effected by it, that will somehow be a way of healing for us as a world. we don't have to be so selfish all the time.



i mean.. this really brings about many more topics of discussion, like the way people are educated today, and how people could care less about so much stuff in school because it doesnt RELATE to them. i'm not saying its bad that people dont pay attention, i'm saying the focus should be more about relating to individuals and developing a real understanding than... whatever shit system we have now with grades and tests and right answers and measuring up to your peers and all the other BS focuses we have. I'm glad that i can be inspired to learn, but i give that credit to many outside experiences, and a select few teachers who took the time to relate to their students.


relationships bring about change, and when the world learns to form relationships across nations, thats when it will be hard to say no and turn our backs, because it really comes down to names and faces and saving lives, not death tolls, but stories, stories of life and the fight for it, and the loss of it, and the hope for it to remain.



its just so big, like 10 tsunami's big, 330 september 11ths, thats the kind of lives i'm talking about, taken out of hate or maybe just large-scale misunderstanding, big enough for a few hours of your time to be somewhat informed...


its playing at the charles theater.... www.thecharles.com, and muvico. find some time.





-Jodi