I Am

Last weekend, the Social Brink Club at the University of Denver put on a screening of the documentary I Am . For those of you who have yet to see it, Tom Shadyac, the esteemed creator of classic movies such as Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, and The Nutty Professor, has set out and created a documentary to try to answer a couple of questions. Those two simple, yet very complex questions are: What’s wrong with our world? And what can we do to make it better?

Photo from IMDB.com

I sat through the film, incredibly engaged, as well-respected men and women from a variety of career fields spoke about their feelings on these two thought-provoking questions. There was a study introduced that I found to be incredibly interesting. It explored how certain stimuli like 9/11 and a young boy being reunited with his father after he was deployed for a long time result in sympathetic and even sad emotions to exude within from the majority of the human race through the inaudible languages of the heart.

I really thought about this notion and whether or not it really happens, but if I were to think about it, when I’m in a movie theatre watching a sad scene, it triggers that feeling of sadness for not only myself, but those around me as the majority of people get all teary-eyed. This thought saddened me and really opened the movie up to Shadyac’s discovery that we are a world of competitive people, whereas our roots and ancestors back from the early ages fueled off of and were successful because of cooperation. Many of us have forgotten what it’s like to have a sense of unity with others because we are an incredibly progressive world. Society has engrained in our minds that we have to fight alone to get things done the right way and to be the best.

While I can certainly note that some things are better completed alone, many of the great things that have been created in this world are through the cooperation and collaboration between individuals such as you.

Money is another huge topic of discussion in the film. Many of us associate money with happiness, yet the honest truth is that while it may alleviate stress and provide a feeling of temporary happiness, it is not something that can provide that long-term feeling. Doing things that fuel that fire and sense of purpose within are what make all people happy.

While that is a very ambitious statement, I would certainly agree that it rings pretty true for me. I am taking prerequisite classes this quarter for my major  that in no way fuel me or make me feel like I have a sense of purpose in what I’m doing. I am obliging to the track and checklist of my major so I can get that degree and get that well-paying job to ensure my financial security in this struggling economy. I often question whether or not what I am doing is really the right thing, or just the thing I should do because it’s what society expects of me. Upon my introspection, I still have not come up with a definite answer as I love my my hospitality management major, yet many of the classes that go along with the major are absolutely dismal.

All in all, this movie explores a variety of things that challenge you and enlighten your way of thinking. Shadyac found that there are a lot more things right with this world than wrong, but was still unable to answer his second question because not a whole lot stood out to him in order to answer it. I urge anyone to watch this film because it is a great reminder about how we all need to take a moment to do things with others, not for them, and certainly not out of our own self-interest. Try to do the things you do because you want to and you love doing them. By doing those two simple things, we can all start to do something about the right and the wrong present in the world and then that visible change may be present.