Feel This Tribe Around You: A Look at 30 Days, I Am and Y: Yoga Movie

Found my way back to Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days which I abandoned with only three episodes remaining. The last episode is 30 Days on An Indian Reservation and it was really moving. I loved it when Spurlock participated in the daily ritual of running toward the sun then greeting it then saying a prayer for his family. He also realized the importance of being present and has a transforming sweat lodge experience.

I felt full of hope after watching I Am, a documentary written and filmed by the man, Tom Shadyac, who brought you Ace Ventura Pet Detective. Shadyac has a bicycle accident that leaves him with injuries and depression. He decides to seek out the likes of bishops and psychologists to get their take on happiness et al.

One person that Shadyac interviews say:

When Darwin wrote the Descent of Man, he mentioned survival of the fittest twice and he mentioned love 95 times.

I know that I've frequently referenced survival of the fittest as well...I also like the person who said:

The basis of nature is cooperation and democracy.

Obviously, it's been said before but when you see example after example of cooperation  in nature, it can be a goose bump-inducing moment. Loved the ending. Thanks to Cindy for bringing this documentary to my attention.

At first, I didn't think that I was going to like Y: Yoga Movie. The narrator's voice seemed a bit creepy and shots of the sky seemed a bit kitschy but I got on board loved it. Diamond Dallas, featured in Enlighten Up!, is back telling the store of how wrestling took a toll on his body. He's told that he'll never wrestle again but, after doing yoga for three months, he's back in the ring. I also like when Dallas said that yoga will give you mental flexibility, a gift that I've gotten from yoga.

I love it when Seane Corn talks about how her life was, theoretically, falling apart and how her life was complicated but that she got the sense that things were unfolding as they should and she also had a sense of joy. When she thought about the source, she pinned it down to the yoga class she had been to earlier.(21:21)

There are several celebrity yoga practitioners interviewed -- probably more than I recognize but the person who stole the show for me is Andre, a teenager who struggled with bad Andre and good Andre; he's quite a character and you can see how yoga has transformed him.

At the end of the film, I loved it when he says:

To the people who fucked with me, I say thank you because, through them, I learned how to forgive... (1:14:00)

Hala Khouri, a yoga teacher and Andre's mentor, discovered yoga after a cancer diagnosis. I like what she said at the end of one of her classes:

As you drop into your breath, as you drop into your being, feel this tribe around you. We all came here today as a collective... (1:13:40)