When the movie Titanic won an Oscar for best picture, I was disappointed. It was not in my opinion, the best film that year. Most of us have little idea as to the ‘behind the doors’ pulls and pushes that determine those decisions.
A wise friend put a spin on that win that made sense at the time, by positing the movie won because it spoke to the cultural underbelly of our times. People in denial as the ship of state is going down. It pointed to a society that was beginning to splinter, but not yet able to articulate, or fully appreciate the eminent dangers that were looming on the horizon, gathering in power by being so ignored. This unconscious sentiment expressed indirectly through the movie had broad appeal.
Climate change, which despite the clear scientific warnings since the late 1800’s, we did not and still do not turn into with appropriate actions across the global landscape. Political fracturing, which was ramping up and is now an almost unbridgeable divide, and income inequality so amped as to be obscene. Today marks the first Trillionaire (that is one thousand billion) while more than 50% of the world lives on $11-$14 a day, or around $4,000 a year. 99% of global population lives on between $11,000-$14,000. The top 1% live on between $450,000-$795,000 a year.
And then there is AI. Then, a distant rumble of concern and promise, now a force on the edge of uncontainable and life altering.
That was 28 years ago.
Those far away ‘then’ concerns have magnified many times over ‘now’, undeniably in our faces, to be felt, negotiated, feared, embraced or denied.
Some are cowering in the cabins, clutching at prayer, some are fighting for places on the few life rafts, (presently called bunkers) and some are dancing. In ‘98 those dancers on the deck felt capricious, oblivious, as if they were turning their backs, pretending not to know.
Turning the whole equation on its head, I am now wondering, decades later, if maybe, it is a sane and deeply life affirming response, to dance, to celebrate life, even in the face of our inevitable personal and probable collective demise.
Why not hold hands, relish a last meal with friends and family, before the comet hits, as in the movie, Don’t Look Up.
Someone close is presently dying through an illness. He was not focused on how much time he may or may not have, instead he lived his last weeks, loving his precious ones, doing small things that he still could, each an accomplishment, until the ravages of his disease caught up and plunged him into the hard and messy process of dying.
I admired his sense of gratitude, even in the face of death. It is after all what many of us yearn for, the capacity to face mortality with celebration, with gratitude, rather than resistance or terror. Why not dance, not because we are in denial, but because finally, we are not.
May your summertime be fire and smoke free, may the bonds that bind be joyous and strong.
Love, Priya.
In honor of Prem Johnston, 6/15/50-6/19/26
