HEREAFTER

Tonight, Kathleen and I saw "Hereafter," the new film by Clint Eastwood. There are too many levels on which this film grabbed me to enumerate, but at its core this film is about making and maintaining connections. As I write this, I am listening to the soundtrack composed by Clint Eastwood, which I purchased as soon as I got home. That is the true measure of a film- that one longs to experience its message again and again and that this is achievable by listening to its score.

While "Hereafter" does focus, naturally, on the hereafter, the film also resolutely reminds us of the power of connections in the here and now. There are 3 principal characters. Matt Damon plays a young man in San Francisco named George who had a near-death experience that left him with psychic powers. While his entrepreneurial brother views this as a gift, George views this as a curse that drives people who come close to him away. Another main character is Marie, a young French television journalist from Paris, who has a near-death experience during a tsunami in Southeast Asia. Her life and her perspective are turned upside down by the glimpse of the hereafter that she had during this event. Finally, a young English boy named Marcus loses someone he loves dearly, and Marcus longs for a chance to speak with this lost soul again.

The film was powerful to me simply because of the depth of humanity that these three characters exuded. I was reminded of past relationships and friendships and just how much it is possible for one to feel and yearn for others. I was reminded that despite how impersonal and mind-numbing life can seem, it is also beautiful...if only we will take the time to look around.

I was reminded of this last week while on a run through the neighborhood. I am someone who looks straight ahead or at my GPS watch for my splits when I run, and I have been known to miss many a beautiful sight. However, during this recent run, I gazed skyward, and my glance was met with the most beautiful clouds I have ever seen. No, they were not lined with silver. Rather, they seemed to be framed in gold due to the way the sun struck them. A picture from the backyard post-run is shown below.



As I watched "Hereafter" and these characters, especially young Marcus, I felt a yearning to see and be with my own children and my own parents. Shown below are Cate and Nicholas in the Halloween costumes they wore to a party we attended before we went to see this movie. Cate went as a koala bear, and Nicholas went as "my daddy."





This movie also made me long for my friends. I am a lucky man to have too many friends to list, but you know who you are.

I know that one day I will have to say goodbye to you all. While, I am still not sure whether I believe in a hereafter where we will all be re-united, I do know that it is within my power to tell you now how much you mean to me. So if you are reading this, please know one thing- at the darkest times, at the lowest points (and there were many), you all reminded me why life was still worth living. That is a truth that I may take with me to the hereafter but it is also a truth that does remind me, on a daily basis, to live in the present.

Life is a gift, but we are given it... until further notice.