There are some movies that play time and time again on cable television. There are movies that I watch time and time again when I come upon them. These movies have scenes I enjoy and like to watch over and over again.
The Greatest Game Ever Played is one of those movies. I love the scene where the golfer Francis Ouimet goes into an office where the community leaders have gathered to tell him he needs to change his caddie from the young boy he had carrying his bag, to a grown-up adult. And Francis reassures Eddie, the young boy, that everything is alright and he is not changing caddies. Francis stops on his way out to tell one of the men to never talk to his caddie again. A very simple scene in the movie, but very powerful in its meaning. The message I see in that scene is trying to win at all costs regardless of who gets hurt along the way is not the right way to win. There is something about watching a young man do the right thing that makes me feel good and gives me hope. Isn’t winning the right way, the only way to be a winner. If the manner in which you win makes you less of a person, is that really winning in the end?
The Green Mile is another movie that has a scene I love watching as well. A scene with a real life lesson in it. Near the end of the movie there is a series of scenes with Tom Hank’s character, Paul, who is the senior guard in charge of death row. In these scenes Paul is fearing for his soul, he is convinced that John, the inmate on death row, is a son of God blessed with the miracle of healing. Paul is fearing for his soul because after he executes John, he feels he may be damned to hell for killing “one of God’s true miracles.” He wonders how he could explain to God why he executed a man who he believed to be a miracle son of God. He asks his wife, what do I tell God, it was my job? The thought of saying he executed John because it was his job disgusts him. So Paul’s wife tells him to go talk to John about it. John reassures Paul what he has to do is ok. John is ready to go back home, he is tired of the racism, the violence and the cruelty that humans have towards one another.
The life lesson I learned from watching those scenes in the Green Mile is that someday if we are to be judged, we will be judged by our actions. We can quote the Bible, we can proclaim our love for God through whatever religion we adhere to, but at the end of our lives we will be judged by our actions and not our words.
There are events happening in America that are cruel and inhumane to our fellow human beings. Those who are inflicting cruelty and inhumanity will have their day before God and be judged for their actions. I am worried for the souls of others whose job it is to cover up the cruelty and inhumanity with a blanket of lies and false innuendos.
I believe we have an expectation, by the God I believe in, to call out cruelty and inhumanity. There are people and groups of people whose job it is to lie to us and downplay the actions of cruelty and inhumanity in such a way as to persuade people it is the victim’s fault and they deserved it. How do those people explain their actions on judgment day? They must believe in a different God than I do. They must believe achieving the goal justifies the method no matter how despicable that method may be.
We all have the freedom to believe what we want to believe. We are entitled to be able to justify our actions to ourselves. But at what expense does someone justify being mean and cruel to others?
I have often said, whether you believe in God or you don’t, there are only two things you bring with you when you die. The two things are your memories and your reputation. I believe the amount of success in a person’s life is measured by the quality of the respect they have acquired in the way they have lived their life.
I really hope the people who are cable news hosts, talk radio hosts and podcast hosts can step back for a minute and see where they have gone to and where they are. A lot of them have been swept up by their defense of cruelty and inhumanity to achieve a goal and lost their values and morals along the way. I hope and pray that one day they can see the type of person they have become and strive to be a better human being. A human being with a soul full of love and compassion for their fellow human beings.
There are life lessons we can learn from movies and the more times we watch them the more those lessons become a part of our character. I learned that winning doesn’t always make you a winner and it is your actions and not your words that define who you are.