Bob Schwartz

We don’t have to name a condition to know it. The naming is often imprecise, incomplete and misleading, giving us a general idea, but not fully representing the experience or phenomenon. 
Yet we want to name what we see and feel and know, because it allows us to talk about it and in the case of troubles or problems, start solving them. 

Reading one of the many disturbing and unsettling stories in today’s news, I was reminded of a special movie that arrived in 1982. Free of narration, with a haunting soundtrack by Phillip Glass, Koyaanisqatsi is an arresting visual juxtaposition of nature’s world and man’s world in the late 20th century. The title is taken from a Hopi word, meaning chaotic life, corrupted life, life out of balance. The full title of the film is Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance. 

There be no more apt way of describing where we seem to be right now. A name for our condition. It is this simple. Life seems to be out of balance. More so than in 1982, more than earlier times. Not worse, though that may be. Simply out of balance. As if we feel like we are falling over, or about to fall over, and we would like to feel steadier, so we can keep standing up, so we can keep walking straight ahead.