I watched Lady in the Water last night. Enjoyed it of course, as I love fairy tales and bedtime stories and can suspend my disbelief indefinitely if someone tells a good tale. One of the plots is that the Lady has come to inspire a writer in our world to write a great work that will change the world.
So she meets him and tells him his future: that the book he is writing will inspire a child who has just been born. That child will grow up with this writer's book on his shelves, take the writer's words to heart, become a great leader who quotes the writer in his speeches and eventually will lead the world to great changes that will usher in a new era of peace and change, all because this book has changed him.
Pretty wonderful thing for any writer to learn. But the writer comes back to the Lady and says, "You say the child quotes me. But you never say the child meets me." And goes on with his suspicions. The book he is writing is controversial. It will make people angry. The only way the writer can see it catching on so quickly and his words given such meaning, is if they are the words of a martyr. And he asks her if someone will murder him because of this book he has written. The Lady says yes, the writer will die for those words.
It is the typical double-edged sword, yet it struck me this time. When she first spoke with the writer, I was envious. To know for certain that your book will be published, that it will be a success - that hits at my greatest fear. I think all my books would be finished if there were not the rejection process awaiting me after finishing, both from publishers and from critics both near to me and far away. To have certainty, total faith in your work and your abilities, seems like such a gift and I was envious.
Then the other shoe falls. Would I die for words? Am I brave enough to change the world, but only live half my life? I don't believe in heaven; I don't believe that there is anything at all after we die. This life is all we ever get and do I care enough about the fate of the people in this world that I am willing to give up fifty years of it? Most martyrs are from the Muslim, Christian or other faith and they are told they will be thanked for their death by some afterlife reward system. The writer in the movie did not hesitate (for the Lady would not have visited a waffler such as myself), but I am no longer so innocent and wonder at my own beliefs and intentions. I am willing to sacrifice a lot to make the world a better place - but my life? How much is any life worth, how much is the life of a soldier fighting in Iraq worth? Everything, and nothing, depending on who is doing the judging.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
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