On Monday night, Becki and I went with some friends to see a movie. We had intended to see "Superman Returns," but there was not a showing at the time we needed. So we went to see "Click" with Adam Sandler
While billed as a comedy--and the film did have some funny moments--it turns sharply serious in the second half. In the film, Sandler's character receives a universal remote that controls the universe. With it he can pause or fast forward life. He ends up fast forwarding all the unpleasant parts of his life (arguments, showering, drugery at work, etc.), and in so doing, realizes that he has missed life itself.
About a month ago I caught myself actually wanting to fast forward my life two weeks, I had so much to get done. What does this say about us? Are we just too busy, or do we simply not value life enough? Aren't bad times better than a life unlived?
Posts
6 comments:
First off, dude, I'm really sorry you missed "Superman Returns." Wow. If you can get past two plot holes (which of course I can, haha) I would have to say it's probably the best movie I've seen this year. A good ole' fashioned hero/villain movie complete with a lot of tribute to the original movie, the first comic series and Chris Reeves.
Kim and I saw "The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" last night and it's amazing. If you've seen the first one, and liked it, you're going to love this second movie which leaves you wanting to see the upcoming third installment immediately.
As for "Click," I had heard that while it means well (I'm a big Christopher Walken fan) that it profiles itself as a family sort of movie only to leave families dumbfounded in the unseen serious parts and language. Adam Sandler is hit and miss.
As for clicking our lives away, what a true statement. I'm only 32 and I look back and wonder where time has gone since college. I find myself at times unable to enjoy the blessings God gives us because I'm too busy worrying about what tomorrow holds. Will the cars continue to run? When will they need maintenance? When will my job stress let up? Maybe if I work a little harder, put in more hours? When will we get the new house improvements done? Where will we find the money for it? Amy I making the right decisions? When will God show me the way?
It makes me crazy to think I'm busy and overrun now, and we don't even have children yet. We've gone from acting as human "beings" to human "doings." I tell myself all the time, I'm going to slow down, take time for things. Not going to let my job or outside activities control me.
Then the weekend is over and the race begins again with an overbooked week. I wish I knew the answer. I feel after training myself to be busy over the last 10 years there's no way I'm going to be able to change overnight, and that's frustrating.
Progress, not perfection. . .
Mark,
I caught the second Pirates movie last night, and it is a good ole-fashioned summer popcorn movie.
You list all of the things that we consume our lives with. For me, I have a constant need to achieve. Much of the time this is good, as it lets hopefully do a lot of good things. However, it is easy for me to constantly be in an achiever, driven mode.
We all need times of quiet, rest, and relaxation with God and our families--whether we realize it or not.
I'm trying to stop "reacting" to my life and slow down to enjoy the people and experiences in my life. So many people I talk to say they are too busy, but you know what, nearly everything that fills our time was our choice. I had to make a conscious decision to slow down, take things out of our schedule and stop reacting. Does your 3 year old really need to be in dance or soccer or swimming? Does your pre-teen really need to do 3 sports at the same time? Do we really need to say yes everytime someone requests our time? Maybe our kids would benefit more by having more time with their parents and less time with coaches and instructors. There are lessons our kids aren't learning because we're so busy taking them somewhere for someone else to teach them something. I'm all for sports and dance and social activities. Anyone that knows me, knows that to be true. But, I think we need to value our time and really make good choices as to how it's spent. Slow down and smell the roses is cliche, but something I think our society should adopt as a mantra.
Julie,
You make an excellent point. As busy as we are, we choose the life that we leave. Some things can't be helped like commuting and fighting traffic. However, we can limit the number of activities that our kids are in.
I doubt if our kids play one sport rather than three that they will be emotionally scarred for life. Maybe it would be better if we and they were less stressed out? Of course, if our kids are achieving less, we live less vicariously through them . . .
There are some great comments here and I just wanted to put my two cents worth in. I still haven't seen the movie "Click" but from what I've heard it really hits home for alot of people. (Even Christians) When it comes to "clicking away" the less desirable parts of our lives it sounds nice but I believe it's those times in our lives that God blesses us most. If we would just try to learn from our mistakes and look for the blessings in our trials. Remember, God doesn't promise us life will be good always but that he will be with us always. Although it isn't easy, instead of "clicking away" the bad times or wishing we could fast forward to better times, we should thank God for ALL our blessings even those we don't find good at the time. I agree that we need to make concience efforts to slow down and enjoy the many blessings that God gives us every day of our lives rather than worry about what tomorrow has in store.
Kim,
Great to have you join the online discussion. As always, you have given us some great thoughts.
It is true that God often speaks to us most during difficult times. Or perhaps he is always speaking, but it is during difficult times that we listen.
I also like what you said about God not always promising good times, but promising to be with us at all times. How true! A friend and source of help through thick and thin--who else can we say that about?
Post a Comment