4 Captivating Videos That Will Inspire You to Change the World

Culture

After reading A River Runs Through It, I got a fly fishing rod and reel along with a few how-to books. This was five years ago. I have yet to actually go fly fishing.

While reading Born To Run, I had urges to fly to the mountains and disappear from the world for a few years. Instead, I stuck around D.C. before moving up to New York City. 

I am constantly inspired by works of art. Life may get in the way of me moving to the mountains or fly fishing, but I am not going to stop dreaming up possibilities. Sometimes the travels we take in our imaginations are the most memorable. While books are often the best way to let your mind wander, short films online can also do the trick. 

These four videos that follow will most likely make you want to explore the world or contemplate the meaning of life. Maybe you will take a trip, or maybe you wont. What is great about these short stories is that they allow you to travel to a new world for a little bit, even from the comfort of sitting in front of your computer screen. 

1. "A Story For Tomorrow" 

"Did you enjoy your story?" The narrator asks as this video launches into it's fantastic culminating montage of beautiful sights, sounds, and jumps of joy. Watching this beautiful, wonderful video makes it hard not to enjoy the story. 

2. "Pale Blue Dot"

Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" monologue inspired by the most distant photograph ever taken of Earth from the Voyager 1 space probe is a hauntingly inspiring piece of work. This amazing video brings the monologue to life with a fantastic animation sequence. A picture of the Earth from afar puts things into perspective: 

"The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." - Carl Sagan

3. "Stardust"

"Stardust," amazingly enough, is about the Voyager 1 that took the picture Sagan waxes poetically about in "Pale Blue Dot." It once again shows us how small the world we live in is, but also is a joy to look at. The stunning views of space, earth, and life are enough to inspire. 

4. "Move"

If you don't want to see every great thing in the world after watching this video, then I don't know what will. This brilliantly edited piece makes you want to get off your computer screen and "Move."

So stop watching awe-inspiring videos online, get out and do something.