HOW MUCH IS YOUR LIFE WORTH?

 

“It is the lives we encounter that makes life worth living”…Guy de Maupassant

Freedom

If you are an ardent follower of my modest blog, you might have realized by now that I’m a sucker for movies so much that they apparently help clarify and make my points on thought provoking topics ring a virtual bell. Well in the light of this, here goes another.

A few years ago after I let my younger brother use my computer, he returned it after he was done, but not the way I gave it to him initially. My Laptop computer came back to me with its hard drive filled with classic movies, hmm he got me, and of course he is welcome to borrow it again anytime.

As you would probably expect, I now had my own private cinema, only I had to make my pop corn myself, fair enough.

After watching several movies at different spare periods, one day I came across this movie with a simple title ‘Freedom Writers’. Yes I love anything that pertains to writing as it is a getaway hobby of mine, but a movie about writing? I had to check it out, enthusiastically.

As I traveled with both body and soul into the fundamental and apparent lucid world of the drama, I could actually for the first time swear that I have never been blown away by the content and delivery of a movie, in a sapiosexual kind of way of course, good thing it’s a movie inspired by true events else the writer would have had to take all the credit. Someone deserving did take the credit anyway, some decent and fine young lady referred to as Erin Gruwell, ring a bell?

“A man is like a novel; until the very last page you don’t know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth reading”…Yevgeny Zamyatin, We

Heart

I remember when growing up, I practically used to brag to my friends and family about how much of a hard dude I was so much that no movie could break me, especially of course Indian movies that are characterized with sentimental songs and sultry choreography. Well, I’m not trying to market the ‘Freedom Writers’ movie, but the truth is it had an unusual grip on me, and as the story gracefully unfolded in addition with the characters interpretation, I must say truthfully that I got teary at some point, yes, the story did break me after all, not to pieces though.

 

I don’t want to give it all away, neither do I want to be a movie spoiler in case you haven’t seen it, but basically the story was about a good teacher that took it upon herself to straighten up the lives of certain unruly kids, how? She reached deep into their hearts in an unexpected and perhaps an unusual way, selflessly, no matter whatever it took.

Erin Gruwell was so passionate about salvaging the future of disobedient kids so much that she was able to intelligently point out the salient fact that if a lawyer had to defend a kid in the court room, the battle was already lost, rather she’d be a teacher and correct them before they got to the streets broken, wow! That is good enough a heart for me.

‘What we know matters, but what we are matters more”…Brene Brown

Priceless

I am definitely a fan of education, not just because it makes people easy to lead and difficult to enslave, but also because it sharpens our minds, allows us to discover things about ourselves that we probably never even knew was there, and it also gives us a reason to live when we aspire higher in pursuit of happiness and fulfillment.

Erin Gruwell brought herself down to the level of the kids under her watch in the school she taught in and strategically addressed racial profiling and also helped them reminisce on the important folks that the kids lost to thoughtless violence and gang wars, reaching deep into their souls and most sensitive points to clearly express the reason why it is senseless to partake in it, and to help them ascribe value to their personal lives. She inspired them by taking them on excursions to museums and to simulate well archived past racial violence and encouraged them to vent their anger on paper rather than society, thus ‘Freedom Writers’ Diary’ what a therapy.

“Even though human life may be the most precious thing on earth, we always behave as if there were something of higher value than human life”…Antoine de Saint

Worth

I also recently saw a new movie featuring Matt Damon (The tough dude from the Bourne trilogy), the new movie he stared in is called 'The Martian', of course I'll spare you the details so you don't worry about spoiler alert, but the point here is America was able to let the world realize the value of one person's life by committing immense resources to save it.

So what is your life worth in the midst of all the craze and rancor that has held the world hostage and left it under siege?

What is your life worth to the fortune 500 companies that have no regard for our lives so far their executives can add multiple zeroes to their bottom line while they throw caution to the wind when they compromise standards in manufacture of drugs and carelessly dispose toxic waste sin residential areas and local coastal lines, diminishing tendencies of future harvests?

What is your life worth to the propagandists that constantly destructively criticize terrorists, meanwhile they have large stakes in the multi-billion dollar market of the advanced weaponry that the rebels use to scare and massacre us?

What is your life worth to you, having been literally marked for death by extreme prevailing circumstances of war, poverty, natural and artificial disasters that constantly lurk both in the day and at night, making every move a dreaded one with the precious lives of our loved ones melting away in the bewilderment of disbelief and 'unwatchable' and gruesome sight of displeasure?

Even if Erin Gruwell lovingly won our hearts today, qualifying her for a reputable case study on matters of human worth, we must however not fail to realize that it is a tiny fragment compared to how much we can actually max out our potentials so much that we may realize the limitless things we can achieve.

 “Follow your dreams. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but it’s going to be worth it”…Moffat Machingura

We must genuinely realize that our lives are priceless, think about it, what it feels like to kiss a loved one, caress a friend, feel the flowers, savour the freshness of green vegetation and being confound by the mystery and grace of nature. Indeed we are worth much more than we can ever know, but we need to constantly remind ourselves also celebrate and appreciate the unique beauty of our lives, everyday.

Thank you.

Akin Abimbola (akinzogee@yahoo.com)

Sources:

Google

Wikipedia

Yahoo

Brainy Quote

Good Reads

Might Flight

Freedom Writers