I'm in a rather good mood. I mean, it's like two in the morning and still 80 something degrees, and I suspect that M. Night Shyamalan destroyed my headphones, but other than that, I'm in a good mood.
I'm not kidding about the headphones either. They were working perfectly well before I started watching The Devil, now the right one won't work. Normally when I finish one of Shyamalan's movies, I feel like he owes me hours of my life back. This movie didn't bother me though, so mostly I just think he owes me new headphones.
I know he wasn't completely responsible for the film, but it still had a lot of his bag of tricks to it, including the pseudo religious moral and TWIST!!!!!!! towards the end. Both of these things are usually annoying as hell.
However, in this case, the twist, while somewhat predictable, was part of the natural flow of the story. It was needed. As for the pseudo religious moral . . . well, the movie was about the Devil, so what do you expect?
Also, the moral in this case isn't hokey. It's about forgiveness and the need both to forgive others and to be forgiven. There is the point where the devil tells one of the characters that he can never be forgiven for what he did. The look in the man's eyes are of total hopelessness. You actually really feel the moment.
You know, in life, it's almost like we're handed these two buckets as children. We're told we have to carry the buckets around with us until we die. In one bucket, we carry around all the damage and hurt done to us by others. The second bucket contains all the crappy things we've done.
Forgiveness is so powerful and so healing because we do, literally, feel lighter when it happens. When we can extend forgiveness to someone else, it eases us at this deep level. And I can tell you from personal experience that when someone forgives you for something, you feel like you've been washed in a pure stream. You feel humbled.
I think it's important to keep both metaphorical buckets as light as possible, if nothing else for the sake of balance. If you forgive others but keep punishing yourself, you'll be lopsided. The same can be said for people who let go of their own crimes but hold onto every slight anyone has ever committed against them. You lose perspective. Eventually, you just stumble around.
For those of you who are religious, I'm sure you can see how your beliefs place their own spin on this. Apply that all you wish. At the same time, I think that forgiving others and allowing yourself to be forgiven is something that everyone should do, regardless of belief.
Is this easy? I would suppose for some people, who are rather patient and generous, it's very easy. For the rest of us, yeah, it's a lot more difficult. However, in the same way that you don't want to find yourself being a physical hoarder, being an emotional hoarder can be just as crippling, damaging, and painful.
A while back, I had the opportunity to ask someone to forgive me, someone I had hurt a long time ago. And not just because I wanted to hear her say she forgave me. I honestly didn't know if she would or not. However, I knew I owed her an apology. She deserved it and I really truly was sorry for the situation. Amazingly, she did forgive me and it was one of the best feelings of my life. It really changed how I looked at the concept of forgiveness.
Oh, so given all of that, I guess I should forgive M. Night Shyamalan for destroying my headphones.
No comments:
Post a Comment