One reason I have
such a hard time writing consistently on environmental problems is that it is
so bloody depressing. Sometimes I want to throw up my hands in despair and run
away screaming. Of course, part of the problem is that there is nowhere to run,
and in fact part of how we got where we are was by assuming that we could
“externalize” costs and let other people “over there” pay for our wastefulness
“here.” And often “over there” is the developing third world and here is the
developed first world. Gotta love globalization!
But I was watching
the first episode of the TV series Xena, Warrior Princess the other day and it
offers some insight about when we can and can’t—and maybe even should and
shouldn’t—run away.
The episode opens
with Xena (Lucy Lawless) riding through a burned-out village, remembering its
destruction. A boy asks her for food. She tells him no one has anything to
spare, and asks what happened to his village. He says that Xena the Warrior
Princess came down out of the sky on a flaming chariot and destroyed it,
killing everyone, including his parents. She drops a package on the ground and
rides away. He opens it to see bread and cheese. In the next scene she strips
off her leather armor and buries it and her weapons.
But almost
immediately a ruckus ensues. A warlord and his minions are gathering villagers
to sell as slaves. Dressed only in a linen shift and boots, Xena fights them
off, first with her bare hands, then with a sword she takes from a minion, and
finally with her weapons that she digs out of the ground. She returns with the
people to their village and puts her armor back on while a young villager named
Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor) begs her to tell her how she did her fighting moves
and Gabrielle’s father insists that Xena move on and not get their village in
bigger trouble.
The episode is titled
“Sins of the Past” and it is clear that Xena cannot escape hers.
As she prepares to
leave, Gabrielle begs to come too, saying, “You’ve got to take me with you and
teach me everything you know. You can’t leave me here…. Xena, I’m not cut out
for this village life. I was born to do so much more.” Xena refuses and leaves
alone, so Gabrielle packs her things and runs away to follow Xena. She uses her
wit to elude a Cyclops and get a ride on the cart of a farmer so she doesn’t
have to walk all the way to Amphipolis, Xena’s home town.
Back home, Xena faces
the people who knew her back in her village-burning days and want nothing to do
with her—even her mother. Xena’s former warlord partner, Draco, and his army
have started a campaign of burning and pillaging in Xena’s name, so when Xena
warns the villagers that slavers are coming and tells them to defend
themselves, but they accuse her of building an army that will get their loved
ones killed, as she did in the past.
The people of
Amphipolis surround Xena, who puts down her sword and offers herself as “one
unarmed woman” that they can feel brave enough to attack. But just as they are
about to attack, Gabrielle appears and testifies to Xena’s reformed ways,
causing the citizens to let her go, just in time for her to save them from the
slavers.
After winning the
fight against Draco, Xena declines the reward of the villagers and moves on,
but again Gabrielle follows her. She convinces Xena to take her along, saying,
“I’m not the little girl that my parents wanted me to be. You wouldn’t
understand.”
Xena replies, “It’s
not easy proving you're a different person.”
And here we see their
similarities and differences. Both perceive themselves to be something their
families can’t comprehend or accept. Xena, because of her conversion away from
her days as a warlord, is seeking redemption through helping the helpless.
Gabrielle, who feels like more than a village girl destined for an arranged
marriage, is inspired by seeing Xena who is larger than life. Neither woman can
be who she perceives herself to be, not within the social constructs that
surround her.
But together? That
might be a different matter.
As they move off the
next morning, Xena says, “You know, where I’m headed, there’ll be trouble.” Gabrielle
responds, “I know.” Xena says, “Then why would you want to go into that with
me?”
And Gabrielle give us
the answer. “That’s what friends do. They stand by each other when there’s
trouble.”
And so they give us
the answer to my dilemma too. We can’t do it alone, any of it. It’s too
troublesome, dangerous, or, at the very least, depressing. But with a few
friends? A small cohort of folks who know what we are deeply concerned about
and agree? Maybe we can stand by each other.
Just maybe.
