Koyaanisqatsi - A Life Out Of Balance

On Sunday I watched a movie of a very different sort. The movie is named Koyaanisqatsi. As I began to watch it I wondered how to pronounce the word. The music began and soon I could tell I was listening to chanting. Eventually it dawned on me that they were chanting Koyaanisqatsi. That was a big help in knowing how to pronounce it. At the end of the movie, the chanting started again with the same word - Koyaanisqatsi. Now, all day, I've had that chant running through my mind. There was other music in the movie but it was all instrumental. In fact, no words were sung or spoken throughout the movie except Koyaanisqatsi. The movie shows scenes from various places and often uses time lapse photography. You have a film of a beautiful rock formation and you watch the same rock formation as morning dawns, through the day, and into the night. Sound boring? It wasn't. The appearance changes so drastically and so quickly with the time-lapse photography that you can hardly look away. There were many nature scenes. After that there were many unnatural scenes. I saw pictures of mining equipment, power plants, manufacturing plants (like Oscar Meyer wieners and Hostess Twinkies), building being demolished with dynamite, other explosions, cars moving on freeways, people walking on sidewalks or going through Grand Central station, people lining up to go through revolving doors, and people walking on the street with a bus and a plane going by. All these scenes pass by you, some in fast motion and others in slow motion, and there is no connection except the ones you make in your mind. I watched, enthralled, and feeling more and more insignificant as the movie progressed. I know that I am one of those tail lights on the freeway five nights a week. At the end of the movie, these words are on the screen:
"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
"Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."

What a strange movie. I liked it. Maybe if I spent less time being responsible and more time identifying purple finches in the back yard, my life would be more in balance.