I had been wanting to see the movie, Living, for some time. But with busy schedules and sold out shows, I had struck out on several previous attempts to see this small film that was in limited release.
Finally, last week I noticed that it was playing in a town thirty minutes away. So I went by myself to sit in a dark theater on a sunny Sunday afternoon to watch a movie about a man who was coming to the end of his life, and wondering if he had ever really lived at all.
While the premise is extraordinarily and existentially sad, the payoff is equally life-affirming and moving.
If you watch this trailer you’ll immediately get a sense of the wonder of this film. It is now one I count amongst the best I’ve ever seen.
The acting is sublime, the script is true, the score is haunting. All indicators that this is a film that will stay with you.
Or will it?
One of the many important points the film makes is that most of our best intentions, often born from the inspiration of others, will still inevitably fade. Unless that is, we replenish ourselves. Seeking out with regularity, or at least in times of quiet desperation, those people and deeds that inspire us to live more fully.
The idea being that in order to put something good out into the world, we must remind ourselves of the good we and others have already put there. Lest we get sucked back into the mundane stream of everyday life, where hours and days float by- neither with sadness nor glee – but not what we might consider really living.
Take a moment. Seek out that inspiration for yourself. You might find it in the face of a loved one, from something you’ve made that hangs on a wall or sits on a shelf in your home. It could be a plant in your garden or a seed of an idea that sprang from your mind and is now alive in the world for others to appreciate. There is so much good in the world and chances are you’ve contributed your fair share.
When you’ve seen this good that your living has produced, how does it make you feel? I’d bet pretty good – maybe even leaving you a little inspired to live and give a little more.
Here’s to living.