A week or two ago I was sitting comfortably at home in my recliner, in a desperate search to find something worth watching on TV...finally settling on a funding drive show on Public Television featuring Dr. Steven Gundry, who was promoting his most recent book titled The Immortality Paradox. I was intrigued enough by his presentation to check that book out online from my library...I finished it and plan to add it to my Kindle collection of books, I was that impressed. Yet something in how the good doctor presented his thesis on how the "gut" bacteria in our bodies determine our state of health and longevity gave me pause: Point A logically led to Point B which logically led to Point C...and all led back to repeated affirmations of his main point. I get the appeal to reason, but something inside me still rebelled because I don't think that reality is that well organized: it's a lot more chaotic and the systems described are much more complex. Yet I recognize and accept several points Dr. Gundry made and am partially changing my diet to improve my health...
A while back I saw Al Gore's 2006 movie An Inconvenient Truth, which warned in much the same manner as Dr. Grundy with his own topic about the dangers of global warning caused by man-made releases of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The logic and reason with which Gore connected the difference sources of evidence for his thesis was very persuasive and compelling...yet once again after initially being swept away by the presentation, I thought that the system that he was describing contained many other factors that would counteract some of the predictions...just as chaos wreaks havoc with weather forecasting beyond a limited time span. Still, as in Dr. Grundy's case, I do think it is advisable to take better care of our environment, and trying to restrict our carbon emissions is an example of good stewardship of the planet...
And the other night I watched the 2016 documentary movie 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay, which presented its own thesis that the 13th Amendment to our United States Constitution, long celebrated because it officially abolished slavery, is actually flawed in that it contains a clause that makes an exception for criminals...a loophole that has been used ever since against blacks to oppress and exploit them. Seen in this light, as one piece of historical evidence supporting that thesis is followed by another...and then another, after the movie ended I thought that the conspiracy it exposed was real...yet once again I have to inject the role of chaos into complex ideas that sound true, and which most definitely contain many significant elements of truth. Racism is a major problem in our society...but it is one of many factors and doesn't account for all the problems that affect us. Yet the movie was an eye-opener for me and I highly recommend it...
The three previous examples The Immortality Paradox, An Inconvenient Truth, and 13th all deal with very important subjects immediately relevant to our lives here and now. I'm inclined to defer within each of them to subject matter I don't completely understand...yet I am inherently skeptical of buying every conclusion they promote hook, line and sinker. Instead I come away with an action plan from each presentation: be kinder to my own body, be kinder to my own planet, and be kinder to others different than myself. Maybe that sounds too simple, but the way I see it our lives in the end break down to simple acts, one thing at a time...
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