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Instead, I drowned myself with good movies over a cup of caramel chocolate and food, no bath for two days (all of us should do this at least once in our lives), a journey down the lane with the Beatles collection, a delight from other equally brilliant yet not-so-famous musical geniuses, a second trip to a book I've gone through in the past, and a taste of poetry.
My brother and I decided to clean up the files in my computer to give way to new ones. As I was reviewing each, I found hidden treasures of movies, songs, audio books, ebooks and poems that I have not paid attention in a long time.
First one I delved deep into was the Beatles collection. I like listening to the Beatles. Aside from their brilliance, it reminds me of my childhood days. It reminds me of that time when my father listens to it to remind him of his younger years. Music is timeless. It was nice to go back old school, sing and dance and shake-yer-head the Beatles way, when no one is looking.
Another gem I found was my collection of Manchester Orchestra songs. In this collection, I found Andy Hull's (lead vox) side solo project Right Away, Great Captain. RAGC is a concept album in trilogy. It talks about the experiences and emotional journey of a sailor in the old times whose wife cheated on him with his brother. The songs are extremely painful and are deep in a sense that it allows you to see its darkness. I do not glorify the negative feelings of the character but I like its honesty and rawness which gives me a good grasp of people going through the same. Other than the dark side, it gives you a glimpse of hope and the inherent goodness in people, thus gives you the war within human.
Aside from music, I also got to see about three movies, one of which instantly made it to the top of my favorite movies - INTO THE WILD by Sean Penn. The movie was based on the real life account of Christopher McCandless a.k.a. Alexander Supertramp who hiked the Alaskan mountains after graduating from college,leaving his family with no trace and donating his $24,000 savings in order to find himself into the wild. The movie is a self-discovery journey at its utmost resignation from the materials things of the world and a giant leap of faith. It was about something I wish I could do but will probably never find the reason and the courage to do so. It wasn't a perfect journey as it also covered human errors and failures. You could feel the pain in some parts of it and joy in most. The scenes brought me freedom, nature, beauty, art, humanity reason, faith, relationships (and the joys and pains of the lack of it) and God's presence everywhere.
*SPOILER ALERT
The movie blends reasons with a balance. It gave us the realization of two facts -
Happiness is only real when shared.
One thing Chris realized after living on his own for a long time and limiting his interaction with the people that he meets along the way especially when he feels the connection is getting stronger. He believes that people do not need human relationships to be happy because God is all around us. He wrote the above line before he died.
What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?
This was the last line of the movie which balances all. It validates how the journey gave him what others might not have and what he may never have had he not stayed. The scene closes with a great view of the sky and a note:
I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL.
It is a LIBERATING story for me.
What made it more beautiful was the soundtrack featuring the works of a master, Eddie Vedder. Guaranteed, a beautifully written song sends chills up my spine. It is one song I want to hear while traveling.
After seeing this movie twice, it inspired me to search and learn again. It was this eagerness and inspiration that brought my eyes upon a book I have already read twice in the past. I read TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE for the third time and it still felt like it was the first. I still shed a tear on two particular scenes in the story.
The story was written by Mitch Albom about his Tuesdays with a former professor dying of ALS. Both were working on their last thesis together learning how to live life by learning how to accept that we will all die eventually therefore we should do things differently. They talked about the world, about feeling sorry for oneself, regrets, death, family, emotions, the fear of aging, money, love, marriage, culture, forgiveness, perfect days, and goodbyes.
I can talk more about those two days but I'm sleepy now and have not had a good rest in the last two days so I'll stop. But I won't let this end without saying that it was one of the best weekends of my life and we all need a hibernation station once in a while.
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