A Movie for Procrastinators - Long Story Short

Don't wait. Do it Now. That's the basic message of a cute movie we watched a few weeks ago. The Australian film - Long Story Short (2021) - weaves a love story in with a bit of time travel, resulting in a wake-up call for us procrastinators.

I'm not going to spoil the movie for you but... if you get a chance to see it... it's on Netflix Canada. The basic idea is... a "I'll do it later" type of guy, Teddy, is advised by a stranger not to wait and gives him a tin can for his wedding. A can that he is told not to open for 10 years. The next morning, after his wedding, he wakes up and is completely befuddled. Everything is different... the house is fully furnished... his wife is 18 weeks pregnant. A year has flown by. And then a little while later, another year flies by. Teddy gets a fast-forward view of how his tendency to procrastinate has impacted his life, his marriage, and those of his friends. What happens at 10 years? Well, you'll have to watch the movie!

Heads up... this is not a deep movie. It only got 50% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, although viewers gave it more like 6/10. But it did get me thinking about how life is short. Really... in the grand scheme of things, it is incredibly short. And we never know what is coming down the pipe. Will we be here in a year? Will our parents, friends, coworkers be here in a year? We don't know. We assume they will be. We assume that we have all the time in the world. But all we need to do is read the news to know that... it's a big assumption.

As a procrastinator... the words "later", "tomorrow", "next week", "next month", "next year" show up a LOT in my internal (and even external) conversations. I don't feel like. I don't want to. Now is not the right time. It's too hard. I don't know how to do it. I don't have time. Always pushing whatever it is out into the future.

As if I will have more time in the future? Seriously? If I don't have time for it now... what makes me think I will have time for it in the future? The idea that life will somehow magically calm down in the future? When the reno is done... then I'll have time? When the trip is done... then I'll have time? Nope.

Or, that somehow, it will get less hard, less confusing, less uncomfortable in the future? Whoo boy... that's a big one. Because oftentimes the opposite is the case. Things get MORE uncomfortable the longer we push them out. And they get more confusing because they are still hard... and we are filled with more uncertainty because we were so sure it would get easier but it's not and... what the heck!

And then there's the excuse that "now is not the right time"... I'm really not sure what the "right time" would look like. When I feel like it? Or I want to do it? That might have worked when I was a kid... when you could scream "I don't want to!" and you might get away with it. But as an adult... there are literally a gazillion things that we don't want to do but we actually HAVE to do. Like prepping taxes and paying taxes. Or vacuuming the house. Or taking the car in for an oil change. I mean... really... we don't HAVE to do any of those things... but then we can pay the price for those later with a busted car, the tax man on our heels and rampant health issues and allergies due to a filthy house.

There are also the bigger things... on the scale of dreams and visions of what we want to do. Things like take that trip to England. Learn Spanish. Walk the Camino. Drive across Canada. Start our own business. Write a book. Next year. When the time is right. When we have the money. When... when... when... Sometime... just not now.

I wonder sometimes what my Long Story Short movie would look like. If I jumped forward a year every 10 minutes. What would I find? Would I find regrets? Would I find unfulfilled dreams? And if I could see that... would I do anything differently now?

I just did a little exercise where I mapped out my life over the last 10 years - what was happening in April each year. And what would I be thinking as I made that jump 1 year forward... repeatedly. I think I'd get whiplash! There have been big shifts in my life. Moving cities. Changing jobs. Deaths in the family. Illness and injuries. Dreams unfulfilled. A lot of life-changing events.

At the same time, there were trips, house purchases, dreams coming to fulfilment, books being written and published. Gardens planted. Despite everything else that was going on... some dreams did still come to fruition. And for that I am grateful.

Now though... what would my next 10 years, in 1 year jumps look like? What are the dreams that I have now that... if I ended up 10 years in the future with them undone... I would wonder what the heck I had been doing!?

I guess that is the question... because we don't know how long we have. Or how long the people in our lives have. So seize the day. Seize the moment. Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Tomorrow never comes.

Watch a Movie, Change your Life...

Ignorance is bliss.

Once seen, never unseen.

I've been watching a bunch of different documentaries about health and wellness - mostly focused on whole food, plant-based diets. I thought I'd share some of them here because they are eye-opening. Eating animal protein is most definitely NOT good for the planet, for the animals, nor for our own health. I could give you the stats about the links between animal protein and obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer but... that would defeat the whole purpose of watching the movies.

There are seven movies I've watched so far and they all have a different... tolerance level... shall we say. Over the next few weeks, I'll offer a review of each. Most of these can be watched via YouTube, and I've provided the link for that.

1. Vegucated - 2011 - comic/documentary - this one is a nice overall introduction to the costs of an animal protein diet versus the benefits of a plant-based diet. It covers a bit of the human health aspects, a bit of the environmental aspects and a bit of the ethical aspects. It does it with a fairly light tone as it follows three individuals during their 6 week immersion into a vegan diet. It's a great intro movie.
2. Forks over Knives - 2011 - documentary - despite the name, this movie doesn't really touch on the ethical aspects of an animal protein diet. It focuses more on the human health aspects. This is the movie you want to watch if you want to learn about the staggering effects of the typical western diet on human health. The movie presents the stark links between eating animal protein and obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. If you have any questions about the human health aspects, this is the movie to watch.
3. The Game Changers - 2018 - documentary - this one is the one you want your men to watch - your boyfriend, your husband. It totally debunks the myth that you need to eat animal protein in order to be muscular and/or manly. There are some serious athletes and muscle people in this movie. They also touch on some of the health benefits and environmental costs. I have to say, after watching this movie, I went straight to our freezer and ditched all of the processed meat products (sausages, bacon, etc).
4. What the Health - 2017 - investigative documentary - Kip Anderson delves into the world of Big Business (Big Food) and government. It's eye-opening if you want to learn how the US government is putting the interests of Big Business ahead of everyday people. No surprise there really, but this movie lays it all out for you.
5. Food Inc. (Trailer only on YouTube - film is on Netflix) - 2008 - documentary - This movie takes a look at how Big Industry has taken over the production of food. Gone are the small family farms where farmer knew the names of each dairy cow. The name of the game now is producing as much meat as fast as possible in factory farms. Profit trumps all. If you think that Big Business cares about the welfare of animals... think again. And if you think they care about the health of consumers... think again.
6. Cowspiracy - 2014 - investigate documentary - Another one by Kip Anderson, in fact it came out a few years before What the Health. This is the movie to watch if you want to learn about the devastating environmental aspects of the animal protein industry on the earth. Soil degradation, erosion, fertilizer overuse, groundwater pollution, greenhouse gases, etc. etc.  
7. Earthlings (10th Anniversary Edition) - 2015 - horror/documentary - I wasn't quite sure how a movie could be a horror and a documentary but... after watching this movie, I am clear on that. This is the movie to watch if you want to learn about the ethical aspects of how humans use animals. It expands beyond using animals for food to encompass Pets, Clothing, Entertainment and Laborartory Testing. This movie is for everyone who wants to know how "humane" humans are... or are not. Even if you don't watch it... know that the choices you make each and everyday fuel the Demand that supports the Supply of these industries. It's not called Supply/Demand for nothing. We demand more... and they supply more. And it ain't pretty.

Vegucated

Let's start with the easiest one... Vegucated

This was the fifth movie I watched, right after Earthlings. Sooo... in light of that, it was a relief to have a bit of comedic relief. This move follows three individuals as they take on a 6 week challenge to eat vegan. Along the way, the three people are introduced to the facts around the health, environmental and ethical costs of eating animal protein. It's a wake-up call for all of them and they make various statements throughout the 6 weeks that they will never eat animal products again. But how well does that hold up after the 6 weeks? Because as shocking as it is to be woken up to what the animal industry is really like... it's also very easy to fall asleep again and slip back into old habits. And eating animal protein is a habit, for our senses, for our culture, for our economy. At the end of the movie, the producers give a status update on all three and they are either vegan or vegetarian. Which is good.

This movie gives a few snippets of information about the health, environmental and ethical aspects of the animal protein industry. There are a few stomach churning scenes, but nothing too shocking. At least not compared to Earthlings.

If I had to over one caveat it is this: processed food, be it vegan or not, is not healthy. This movie encourages the participants to try all sorts of process vegan foods - vegan cheese, vegan hot dogs, vegan margarine, etc etc. None of these are really going have health benefits. Processed food is bad. Period. So, in that respect, this movie needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Just because something is vegan, does not mean it is healthy. We have moved in the direction of a whole food, plant based diet... and are limiting processed food as much as possible.