Inspired Movies

So I'm over the couch dilemma. The consensus seems to be that my $12 garage sale chair has no business in my den anyway. I still have faith that I will give it a new life someday with some fabulous new upholstery but it will have to live somewhere else in the house. Maybe the guest room.

In the meantime we have been breaking in the new couch by watching some movies, three of which are worth noting:


First is No Impact Man. Colin Beavan and his family decide to try and live an entire year with as little impact on the environment as possible. I had heard of Colin's blog when he first started it back in 2006 and I had assumed that he and his wife were already crunchy eco-loving folks who just decided to do better for the earth. But I was wrong. What makes this film/story really interesting is Colin's wife Michelle. Michelle was addicted to reality tv, retail shopping and coffee. She was a consumer in every sense of the word. Michelle is what makes this story more REAL. She started the no-impact journey from the point where most people would start it....not knowing anything about what it means to have no impact on the environment and not being all to excited to go there. The happy ending though is that Michelle does go there and finds that she is happier for it. She was a consumer transformed and to me that says a lot. Give the movie a try. It is entertaining regardless of what you learn or don't learn at the end but I bet you will come away from it thinking about how you live your life.


Second on the list is Food Inc. I had heard a lot about this movie but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I use the word "enjoyed" loosely because most of the information you learn in this film is extremely disturbing. I like to consider myself fairly educated on the topic of where my food comes from and fairly proactive about making good choices when it comes to what I eat. However, this film reminded me how quickly I fall back into old, BAD habits and gives me a renewed commitment to changing them. Our country's relationship with food is beyond distorted. If there was one thing that you could do to improve the life of yourself, your friends, your family and the environment, it would be to understand what you are eating. I challenge you to watch this movie and make the commitment to change one thing about the way you eat.


Thirdly is DIRT! The Movie. This little gem we stumbled on by accident browsing the channels one evening. It was a really interesting look at the importance of dirt which includes food, shelter, water, and climate. I can't really remember the last time I sat down and THOUGHT about dirt (probably college geology class) but this movie made me THINK. Dirt is part of the foundation of our environment. Take the time to learn about your relationship with dirt.