Was Forrest Gump Wrong About Life?
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
Editor’s note: Greg’s Corner is an editorial (opinion) section where Messenger Reporter Greg Ritchie shares odds and ends from the job and unusual or interesting facts from across the world and across time.
MESSENGER OFFICE – Some movies just stand the test of time and “Forrest Gump” is certainly one of them. Show that to a seventh-grader or to a ninety-year-old and you will still get tears, empathy and a gut reaction to a simple man’s take on life. Life really can be like that proverbial box of chocolates and you really never know what you are going to get.
When you face a moment in your life when you think you could be close to the end, you start to see life differently, though. I don’t wish this on any of our readers, but when a crisis hits and you think this could be “it,” living through that and surviving it gives you a different perspective. What will you miss the most? Why didn’t you do more for those around you? Why did you never reconnect to estranged family, or those old friends or just take in a little flower on a summer’s day? Your heart wrenches, glancing around you, realizing how much living you probably never got – or will get – to do.
The little things start to bounce off of you, and things that seemed so darn important just fade away. You don’t care what’s for dinner, as long as you share that meal with someone you love and enjoy. It doesn’t matter if there’s not quite enough money to pay all those bills, you woke up another day and the sun is out – well, this summer it might have been raining – but the world needs rain, too – enjoy it.
I have tried to take some time to think about life, good and bad, and read about what others think about it. It’s a beautiful thing, but it’s also terrifying if you think about it too much, which I guess I have.
I sometimes think life is more like waking up one day on a boat, surrounded by strangers, in the middle of an empty ocean. You don’t know how you got there, don’t know why you are there, don’t know where you are going, how long the journey will last and what you will find if you ever arrive wherever it is you are headed to.
The other people on the boat have the same problem. Some will place their faith in God, and believe there is a purpose to this journey. Depending on the strength of their faith and how they treat everyone else on the boat, they might make it to one destination, or they might get sent to that other destination.
Others will say the boat itself is a cosmic accident – the boat just suddenly appeared – and it doesn’t matter why we are on the boat and we are, in fact, going in circles, and the journey will simply end one day, without arriving to any destination.
Each must struggle with their faith, or lack of it, while the boat keeps drifting, giving few clues. For believers, each rock of the boat is part of a divine plan, for non-believers, it’s all random circumstance. Regardless of their thoughts, we only really truly know the answer when our own personal journey ends and we get some answers.
And people, being people, try desperately to control the boat, to steer it, to gain mastery over it. It’s why people climb mountains – simply because they are there, waiting to be conquered. Each time a storm comes, you are reminded you are a tiny speck on that vast, empty ocean, and you learn you can’t control the boat, only try and deal with it, hopefully with humor.
The only control you have on this boat is, simple as it sounds, you – your reactions, your temperament, how you treat and interact with everyone else on the boat. You didn’t choose to be on the boat, and you can always jump off into the water – but the journey – even with its ups and downs – is something too wonderful to be missed. Is being on the boat a school, where you are learning lessons for the end of the journey? Or is it a prison, where you have to do your time and maybe, with good behavior, there will be a paradise waiting at the end of the ride? I guess it all depends on your perspective.
On one of my many travels, I once found myself in a little mountain village about an hour from paved roads in Mexico. The town was getting ready for the wedding of two locals, a young couple, both trembling from nerves, fear and expectation, as all young couples do on their wedding day. An old man, who looked to be in his 80’s had been brought in to slaughter a pig for the whole town.
He explained to me how he would use every part of the pig – it was a poor region where nothing could be wasted. I asked him about his life and times and his outlook on the world, and why not? He had been floating in the boat of life a lot longer than I had, at that point. He said something that has stuck with me, all these years later.
“Life,” he said, “is like a supermarket. You pay for everything on the way out.”
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
