My Dad, Iraq, and Avatar

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2010)

To my fellow Avatar worshipers... I have been doing some soul searching after seeing Avatar 3D, and have come to realize several necessary, but painful truths about my life, and maybe life in general. Avatar opened my eyes. You see, my father was killed in Iraq in 2006, and since then I have suffered from terrible depressions. I spent two years in virtual isolation, having dropped out of high school. I would ask myself the same questions over and over again. Why did he have to die? For what cause - oil, freedom, Christianity, Islam? My dad always told me it was really messy over there, and that there weren't really any good guys, not even the U.S. forces. I thought he was just tired and cynical, and that deep down he believed in the good of his country. Years after my father's death I found myself sitting in a dark theater with 3D glasses watching something that was equal parts breathtaking and brutal. When the name of the precious mineral "Unobtanium" was first mentioned, a light went off in my head. It was like poetry or something. That's what my dad died for, Unobtanium. I know this sounds pretty crazy, but hear me out. Un-obtan-ium, see when you break it down it says something... Unobtainable. That word "unobtainable" pretty much sums up everything that people have lusted after since the very beginning of mankind. Maybe heaven is like Unobanium, so precious that people will do unspeakable things to get to it. I think these observations can be applied to the war in Iraq in two ways. Firstly, the oil. That's the easy one. Second, the dream of Iraqi Democracy, true Democracy. Unobtainable, at least for now. So, the movie was absolutely unparalleled in it's fearless indictment of Americans, but also of all technology-obsessed "progress" driven peoples throughout all time. I guess the message is we forget what's really important. Even heaven, as perfect as I hope it is for my dad now, is a place I would never kill another person for. It's the people we are surrounded by in this life, and the living world around us that we must care for first - whether you're a big CEO at an oil company, a Muslim, a Christian. What you all have to realize is that no substance, no afterlife is worth anything, if you don't make this world now, and the people in it your first priority. Would any God let anyone into heaven, seeing the world as it is now? It's all of our responsibility to care for one another. I don't know if I'll be rich in this life, and I don't know if my soul is perfect enough for heaven. I don't want to think my dad died in Iraq for something evil. Join me in my resolution to set aside difference and unite as one species to make this world, our only world, a peaceful and beautiful place.
God bless you, James Cameron, you have a gift and it has helped me to open my eyes.
Anonymous