Yesterday, I took myself to an early evening movie at the
Irish Film Institute. I showed up to see Samsara
around 6pm. I knew it was kind of an arty movie, which I go for if I’m in the
right mood, and that it was filmed over 5 years in 25 different countries. As
it turned out, I really liked the movie – definitely worth seeing on the big
screen. I like seeing movies by myself, especially strange ones like this. Here’s
a tip, though, if you feel depressed about seeing a movie by yourself: Just
imagine that you’re with whoever is sitting next to you. Once the lights go
down, you wouldn’t be talking to your movie-mate anyway, so just imagine you’re
with them. I did that with the guy next to me, who was also by himself, but
then I didn’t like that he kept laughing at times that seemed insensitive to
laugh, so our movie partnership quickly came to an end and I was happy to be by
myself, once again.
Anyway, the movie made me think about so many different
things, but I think that’s what art is supposed to do; show you something interesting,
make you think about what you’re seeing, and allow your mind to wander off to
seemingly unrelated topics that may have otherwise stayed hidden in the shadows
of your teeny tiny brain caves. I’ll admit a 2 hour movie with no narrative or
dialogue was difficult to sit through, but in the end, my favorite parts were
worth the time.
After seeing so many different places on screen in one
sitting, I got to thinking about how differently people live their lives. The
movie showed a lot of examples of various religious practices throughout the
world. I found myself feeling like all of that might be such a waste of time. When
I really thought about it though, I had to admit that the way I’ve been
spending my time, especially as of late, hasn’t been so honorably important. I’ve
been keeping myself busy trying to find Wi-Fi and just wondering around setting
up my life in Dublin. So, maybe the worth of spending a day baptizing your baby
isn’t to be judged by me. What do I know?
Another part that really got me was when they showed a
few minutes of chickens and cows and pigs being “processed” in fast forward somewhere
in Japan. I admit that I’ve always chosen to live in denial about the food industry.
I haven’t seen any of the documentaries because I knew if I saw them, I would
feel like I do, now. I feel obligated to become a vegan or a vegetarian, or at
least buy farm-raised or wild chicken and only support farmers that are humane.
That sounds so stupid because I don’t know what I’m talking about and I don’t
know what I’m even supposed to look for when I go shopping. Here’s the problem,
I’ve always thought that when I start buying my own groceries, I would buy all
the organic, local, friendly-farm stuff and I would feel really good about it.
The reality is, I’m buying my own food, but I’ve been going to the local Spar
and getting whatever’s cheapest. I don’t even think they sell organic or
friendly-farm and I wouldn’t even know where to begin to look for that, let
alone how much more it would cost on my international student budget. I also
thought about doing some research to get to the bottom of all this and to find
out how to make smarter choices about the meat I eat. The problem with this is
that the school library isn’t open, yet, and I’m not exactly sure how the Irish
public libraries work and I don’t have internet at home, yet, and I just can’t
bring myself to spend any more time at Starbucks. I’m so frustrated that it’s
such a hard thing to figure out how not to participate in what I just saw,
yesterday, in the movie. I’m sure this difficulty is purposely made difficult
by some industry head, somewhere. What a horrible job description. I don’t
think vegan cheese spread and tofurkey are the better option, but I wish there
were an easier way to make ethical, healthy food decisions without literally
going on a wild goose chase, just to have some quality goose-meat! I like being
a carnivore, but I feel guilty enough about the way things are done to make
time in my unbelievably un-busy schedule to find out how to use the public
library in Dublin. I’m going to get some answers! Of course, I’ll share my
findings as they come in to the newsroom…
After the movie I went to The Quays Bar in Temple Bar,
had a couple beers, listened to a FANTASTIC banjo player, met a girl and her
mom from Wales, 2 Irish guys, went to the next bar with all of them, saw said
banjo player at the next bar, asked if he knew of a place I could get a banjo
and/or if he ever gives lessons (he does, so let’s keep our fingers crossed in
hopes that he’ll teach me a small sliver of what he knows), went to next bar,
next bar, next bar… danced, pretended to take Jager shots (spilled them on the
floor, which I kind of feel bad about because they were paid for – but hey, I
would’ve been way too drunk and I didn’t ask for them in the first place), more
dancing, girl from Wales lost her phone, helped her look for it, decided I was
over it, snuck out, got a cab home. Overall, it was a great Tuesday evening!
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