It was a raw rainy spring day, perfect for a movie matinée. So we went to see Noah. I love Russell Crowe and was anxious to see Hermione, er Emma Watson all grown up.

My initial gut reaction to the movie was, “We need another flood.” I actually said these crazy words out loud. But are they crazy?   They poured out from the same deep sadness I felt at the end of watching Avatar. Our earth is a place of amazing abundance and beauty. The moments when I can be still and take in the smells, sights and sounds of nature’s interconnected communities that make up a forest, a mountain habitat or the sea – I am filled with such joy. But when I think about how much of it feels at risk and fragile because of our human actions a wave of utter despair resonates in my deepest core as a wonder how the world will survive us.

Films such as this give me pause to think about human nature and the oldest human question – are we good or are we evil? When we are honest we can see that light and darkness co-exist in all of us. We all have moments in our lives that we wish we could re-do or erase something we have said or did when our worst side has seeped through. We can see both good and evil all around us – incredible acts of kindness and compassion as well as hard-heartedness, greed and utter disregard for other people and the planet. So maybe the question is, can we as a collective species be good enough?

I want to believe that goodness exists in each and every one of us. I want to believe there is a way to tap into it.   Maybe what we need is not another flood, but more love. When we expand our view of who or what is in our circle of love our hearts open and our judgment softens and there is room for us to care about more than we did before.

This line of rumination makes me think of some of my favorite quotes:

 “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Anything war can do, peace can do better.”  (I couldn’t find a source for this one.)

 “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi