Are You Watching LIFE?

“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact
that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.”
—H.G. Wells

When the extraordinary Planet Earth series debuted on TV in February 2007, it grabbed attention around the world. 65 million of us had a regularly scheduled date in the living room for 11 weeks in a row, and sat riveted by breathtaking photography and the miracle of nature. Shot in the fairly new medium of HD, it took us to places and allowed us to bear witness to things we’d never seen before. Everyone everywhere was talking about it — at the dinner table, via e-mail and around the water cooler (imagine, no one was tweeting yet!).

Starting this Sunday, March 21, Discovery Channel and the producers of Planet Earth bring us a new series called LIFE. Last night I was invited to watch a screening of the first episode, Challenges of Life, at the Landmark River Oaks Theatre here in Houston. It is a particularly dramatic theme: The instinct to survive inherent in all living things and their ability to adapt to sustain the species.


LIFE, Discovery Channel's new series to begin this coming Sunday night
Narrated by Oprah Winfrey, the visuals remain spectacular, the stories engaging and the educational value excellent. With this first ep covering foxes, whales, seals, reptiles, insects, plant life, primates, octopi, big cats, hippos and more, there is something for everyone. Standouts to me were the way a small population of common bottle nose dolphins have learned to teach fish to jump right into their mouths, the lengths that a strawberry poison dart frog mother goes to ensure her babies grow and thrive, and how a primate species use tools. With the latter, it’s at once uncanny and unsettling to see their arms and legs making the exact same motions as our own, and their faces frown and show the same exasperation as we do in learning how to wield a large rock as a hammer.



This strawberry poison dart frog is an immensely dedicated mother

All show considerable intelligence and drive that can only encourage new or heightened respect for the creatures we share the planet with. While these examples take place in exotic locales, it can’t help but remind us that to those who take the time to look, there is drama and spectacle going on all around us, all the time — in any tree or on a simple blade of grass.

It makes you think twice about burying yourself in your hand held device 24/7. Hopefully.

Overall, the subject matter is nothing short of motivating. Simply by making it this easy and appealing to explore the world we live in at a deeper level, the conclusion is this: We live in a gorgeous, fantastic, miraculous, wonder filled world. As the dominant species, we should and must do everything in our power to conserve and preserve it and all that lives. There is nothing like the awe inspired by a show like LIFE to jolt us awake to this fact, and fuel a passionate desire to honor and protect our forests, oceans, plains, and mountain ranges, and all of their inhabitants.

Now there’s something to tweet about.



So clear your schedule to again be enchanted, amazed and inspired, brought to you by mother nature… and the producers at BBC and Discovery Channel!

LIFE starts this Sunday, March 21, on Discovery Channel. It runs through April 18 and treats us to double episodes each time (8-10PM ET/PT). And stay tuned after the final show on April 18 for a special called, The Making of LIFE at 10 PM.