Two sides

There are two sides to every coin.  Even if we look at only one, the other is nonetheless there!

I was reminded of this forcibly today.  This morning I watched in HD colour the opening ceremonies of the Rio Olympics.  This evening I watched in haunting black and white filming the Amazon-based movie Embrace of the Serpent.

The colourful events in Rio portray a vibrant culture, using the latest technology to its best effect to entertain and to express a modern society.  Nothing seems impossible in this world where athletes compete to extend the boundaries of human endeavour.

The reverse side of the coin couldn't be more contrasting.  Separated by a generation, two western ethnologists team with the same shaman, the last of his people, in search of a rare medicinal plant in the jungle.  But on the way we visit the destruction of a people and their culture by white rubber plantationists and christian missionaries.

So often it seems that progress comes at the expense of others lives and the loss of much that is precious.  It takes little to think of plenty of modern-day examples.  Cheap fashion clothing and footwear from sweat shops and child labour.  Plentiful electricity from polluting coal generating plants.  24 hour convenience stores and petrol stations manned by underpaid students and immigrants.

It is so easy to just look at the one side of the coin .. maybe one needs to set aside time to turn the coin over and take account of the flip side too.

And a later thought ...
Equally, when we view the dark side of life in sickness or failure or loss, the reverse side might open us to hope and faith and peace!