Argon, Happy Yogurt and Jim Carrey's director

Ok, watch this...your throat is going to close off, your heart rate will rise and its will be difficult not to well up. You don't know this soldier or his family and you will get all vaclempt. We were designed to feel compassion.

That is the Vagus Nerve ... you're welcome. Now go blow your nose and wipe your eyes.

Last evening we viewed the I Am movie with out small groups. Below are my thoughts from this viewing.

• We are because we belong
• Vagus Nerve
• Darwin refers to love 95 times but 'survival of the fittest' only three
• We are great at showing love in church for hour and half then not turned on again until Saturday or Sunday.
• A lot of his suggestions sound like a secular version of  In His Steps by Charles Sheldon
• Heart Math---magnetic field = tv station and tv set at same time
• Interstitial beats of heart--good or bad tellers--we can't think clearly--anger makes us stupid
• Rumi--poet
• Random number generator---stops being random with high emotion events ---9-11 as an example---mass minds become highly focused and the numbers generated stop being random
• Consciousness linked to quantum physics
• Relationship is essential
• Air unites us---Argon--inert gas---same argon as ____________(insert famous or infamous person here)
• Grief is also a firm of joy
• Science is catching up to religion
• How do we change things---a change in consciousness results in physical change
• Everyday acts build up over time to consciousness
• Wetico--canibalism without the eating--taking what someone else needs
• Flawed bags of bones--we have to see this in our oppressors as much as in ourselves
• God says I don't have anybody else except you-Desond Tutu
• Chesterton on what is wrong in the world ... he says, "I am"
• Shayac suggest the answer to What is right is the world can be the same answer as Chesterton.

The discussion with my young charges. Some of the movie is down right odd...electrodes put in yogurt measure you emotions...the same argon might have been breathed by both Jesus and Hitler...blended new age philosojumbo...one of the people interviewed talked about religion in a positive way but dismissed Christian 'religion' as European.

The main point of the session was about how connected we are are humanity--which is central in the teachings of Christ and of the Church. We have jacked things on a regular basis but that is our bad, not God's. Once we got going, the discussion was great. These are impressive young people.

This morning, I could tell they were still wrestling with some of the stuff in the movie based on references to argon, wetico and Chesterton's comment. We'll continue to unpack those thoughts the rest of the week.