Over this past holiday season, Kim and I took the girls to see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I was not necessarily all that interested as I am not a huge Ben Stiller fan. Well, it was AMAZING, and Stiller did a masterful job both as lead actor and as director. With so many movies about death or greed or deception, it was such a pleasure to see a movie that celebrates the elegance of life.
The beauty of this movie, of the story as presented in the movie, is that life is something to be cherished, to be lived out well. That concept is, as my regular readers know, the focus of this blog. As my lead-in on the main page of my site states, “I spend my time helping others become, as T. E. Lawrence said, “dangerous [people]” who “act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”” Mitty, as the movie opens, is merely someone who lives a dead-end life and only daydreams of impossible things, never to be realized. Yet, along the way, through a series of events, he is pushed out of mere daydreams that he watches into becoming a dangerous person who acts on his dreams.
This is a movie you should watch right now, especially as the year begins. Yesterday, the new spring term began for my students. As usual, I spent time on that first day urging them to be there fulfilling a dream, to have a deep “why” that drives them. Sadly, far too many are just marking time, or worse, following a path someone else put them on. Without giving too much away to the movie, this is what has trapped Walter….due to events earlier in his life, he has ended up on a path to merely paying the bills, to becoming some other person who watches life go by.
Don’t be that person, please! Life can be so hard, so challenging. PErhaps you are like Walter, having to deal with some events beyond your control and thus feel trapped. You aren’t. Live each moment well. This moment right now is the only one you have—be alive in it. There’s a great scene between Walter and the character that Sean Penn plays (so excellently acted by Sean, very understated and yet passionate). In that moment, Sean urges Ben’s character to just be present. You really have to see the movie to get the point, but it is powerful.
As January rolls along in another “New Year,” be that person who is truly alive. That doesn’t mean blowing off your responsibilities—as Walter starts to truly live, he doesn’t abandon his responsibilities nor move to some far distant exotic place….he is still a normal man living in the world, and yet he is not normal…he is rather truly present, who lives well. Be that guy, the one who Lives Well.