TWENTYSOMETHING by Ishi Dinim

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about human history. I’m fascinated by how events have twisted and turned to land us here – how each one of us is lucky enough to have had our unique set of genetic code survive long enough to make our present incarnation. We have all endured the pain and suffering of millennia rife with famine, rape, pillaging, genocide, unspeakable horrors and calamities. My bones don’t remember the terrible struggle and hardship that got me here, yet here I am.
My parents conceived me when they were in love, so I’m told, and our family tree, stories and photos illuminate a further understanding of where I came from. Beyond that, whichever series of happy, or unhappy, accidents befell my relatives will remain a mystery. At what point does history cease to matter? Or rather, at what point does the bad stuff in our history cease to matter?
I got really sick, my goldfish died and I fractured my right ankle. All this recent history could have really got me bummed. But that didn’t happen thanks to my friend Jules, who really put it into perspective for me. “At least you’re not building a road in Iraq right now,” he said. How true. And at that moment, the cure for our depressive first world malaise presented itself. We could cultivate a vivid cultural imagination with a focus on empathizing with others to escape or overwhelm our own suffering. Then I reentered reality. We aren’t in a charity-based world, with the best interests of our global brothers and sisters in mind. Life is cheap and people are greedy. For thousands of years, humans have been looting the planet, taking advantage of one another and generally acting rude.
All cynicism aside, if there weren’t a kernel of decency inherent in humanity, the species couldn’t have survived this long. We have networks of individuals and coalitions volunteering their efforts worldwide. Without them, we would have already lost to the dominators. Thinking about other peoples’ problems is both noble and important; dealing with our own is a day-to-day necessity. Often, problems appear very severe, with few solutions looming on any horizon. It is understandable that we gravitate towards thinking about quandaries that have a simple and easy fix. Just work on yourself, be the change, right? Well how come that can be so f*ck#ng hard to accomplish? We’ve got a lot of work to do people. Let’s get it together.

Quotes:
The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.
– Albert Einstein
Scientists announced today that they have discovered a cure for apathy. However, they claim no one has shown the slightest interest in it.
– George Carlin
He who does not know history is destined to remain a child.
-Cicero
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.
– Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a
Young Poet
Movies:
V for Vendetta
The Squid and the Whale

Ishi graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2001, with a BFA major in photography. He makes films, collects cacti and ponders many things. Currently, he is trying to figure out what to do with the rest his life. contactishi@yahoo.ca Waiting to hear echoes back –