I learned very early that not all movies have a message to teach.
My earliest recollection of going to the movies was when we were in the Philippines. Papa had let Mama choose one.
I don’t believe we even made it to a quarter of the movie. I recall Papa quite hastily leading me out from off our seats with Mama following beside.
Prior to us walking out, to which Mama showed no refusal, Papa had already expressed forewarn, whispering his thoughts to Mama the movie was evil and demonic for a child.
I’m not too sure if this was my very first lesson of empowerment- to not feel you had to withstand something, even if time and money had well already been invested.
I’m not sure if that was my very first training to not so easily conform. Regardless, when I look back to that moment, I am since grateful for the numerous movies I have watched since to have given me enlightenment of good.
I can always feel Jiminy Cricket making sure I receive exactly what I need from any movie, even if it may just be a simple line.
I know evil exists. Naïveté does not equate to ignorance. A child who knew no evil, at first, learned without discussion what evil and thus, darkness, means.
There is this child in me that still quietly stands up to applaud true heroism for those who know how to ignore the noise in able to focus on and for the greater good.
While What About Bob? with its line recited by Bill Murray, I feel good. I feel great. I feel wonderful., carries into my soul’s pocket like a child going to a new school every day along with the line in Forest Gump, Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get., to remind me no day is promised, just tried, those with integrous heroism stand atop all movies I’ve watched and listened to in my life.
The character, Philippe, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, in The Man in the Iron Mask, serves as a reminder to me of the importance to serve not just because of being ordained to do so but that it is the good in you that may be the only thing to overcome opposition for all.
Likewise, in The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantes, played by Jim Caviezel, serves as a reminder that vengeance is not yours for you will only carry around anger and despair. Your goodness will have its own redemption in time.
Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Jim Caviezel portrayed remarkably humbling characters that have continued to set me straight in my path, reminding me that the world will try and change the good in you but like a pebble thrown into the sea, it will find its way back to shore, more smoothened and defined from all the pressures of the current.
You are not meant to be broken but instead, refined.
In both Gladiator I and II movies, Maximus Decimus Meridius, played by Russell Crowe, and the second, Lucius, played by Paul Mescal, I sat still as I not only heard but felt Jiminy Cricket tell me what I needed to know and understand.
While all we may want is peace and unity, there are indeed evil who will work tirelessly to never arrive at such. And, sometimes, there is just you with a few others who see the good in you as you stand before all in the midst of a coliseum, facing many now who have easily turned against you for their own misunderstandings or denial of your truth and purpose.
Many, while perhaps once admiring you under a different role, now see you as the greatest enemy- the one that should be done away with and never have power in any way.
While you know those who have fought with you in battle, you also forgive ahead, knowing that some will be forced or have willingly prepared to fight against you.
While you focus on your own agenda, there must be acceptance and awareness of most surprising betrayal as those around you have been enticed by their own temptations to take you down if and when necessary.
Gladiators have only changed their suit but they are found and spoken of throughout generations.
There need not be actual armor or swords worn or held like in the movies. There must be the Davids now who must use faith with truest power.
The good will fight to the end. Evil knows it.
Gladiators of our time positioned to fight for what has been told them is for the greater good.
The wisest must understand as they train to battle under great heat, they have been placed in a game by those who watch under sheltered shade, entertained by the bloodshed under quiet watch.
Like the tip of an iceberg only to be seen at the surface and yet, it is the hidden parts that lead to destruction, we only blame what we perceive to see as the fault.
You, as a gladiator now, hope to not be standing alone at the very last part of the battle but know, even at such great possibility, nothing in you will allow itself to surrender.
There are those inspired by your valor while the rest cannot relate to such courage and will thus see only wrong between all your rights.
Stoicism must be practiced while performed. There can be no crumbling for a mountain that must stand, even if found alone.
I used to sit quietly and watch my Papa read the newspaper from across the room. He didn’t need to tell me what the main issues were of the world; headliners boldly written in bigger fonts could tell me that as I looked for those.
To this day, I can see all what the world is talking about just by perusing through the headlines.
I don’t need to see the gladiators being prepped. I feel them in their own corridors or awaiting amongst a room of trusted few. There is readiness.
While I am not within the coliseum to hear, I sense it has already been said,
“Let the games begin.”
Jiminy Cricket then whispers to remind me to recite, “I feel good. I feel great. I feel wonderful.”
Life is indeed a box of chocolates.
Indeed, nothing is promised under the Sun.
