Heart'n'Soul
Thursday, November 8, 2007
A Mighty Heart
I saw the movie - "A Mighty Heart" a few days back. And it hasn't left my mind since then. I don’t remember coming across a story so powerful in a long long time. Except that it’s not a story, its reality...so extremely depressing and exceptionally inspiring at the same time. It’s not about Daniel Pearl, though I wonder if anyone will ever know what he went through and what he felt. Anyways, it’s about Mariane Pearl, his wife. A woman who despite being five months pregnant, did not lose courage and searched for her husband with all her capacity. A woman who did not give up till the end. Not even when her husband was beheaded cruelly. Instead she started afresh with a courage that’s not just exceptional but exemplary as well. Imagine a person who has to live all her life with the horrific truth of her brutally murdered husband as compared to people like us who would shun watching the tape of Daniel Pearl's murder even once.
She says "You choose fear, I choose hope. Let's see who wins.", to those who killed her husband and seek to harm others through violence and hatred. Revenge would have come easy and naturally to not just her but to anyone who would have been subjected to similar circumstances. But the true strength of a human being's character shines through only on such occasions where we chose to rise above our basic animal instincts. But at the same time forgiveness is too lame as an answer to extreme situations. It’s not a value strong enough to stand on. We must win some sort of victory over the people who have hurt us and we can only do that by denying the terrorists their goal. They try to kill everything in us – courage, hope, happiness. And instill in us a fear to live, a fear to live the way we want and a fear to live freely. The only way to oppose them is by demonstrating the strength they think they have taken from us - the strength to keep on living, to keep on valuing life, to be what we chose to be and not what they want us to be.
And so I salute the spirit of this tremendously brave lady. Truly "A Mighty Heart" - she, who is perceived as one of our "ordinary heroes" is certainly not ordinary at all.
She says "You choose fear, I choose hope. Let's see who wins.", to those who killed her husband and seek to harm others through violence and hatred. Revenge would have come easy and naturally to not just her but to anyone who would have been subjected to similar circumstances. But the true strength of a human being's character shines through only on such occasions where we chose to rise above our basic animal instincts. But at the same time forgiveness is too lame as an answer to extreme situations. It’s not a value strong enough to stand on. We must win some sort of victory over the people who have hurt us and we can only do that by denying the terrorists their goal. They try to kill everything in us – courage, hope, happiness. And instill in us a fear to live, a fear to live the way we want and a fear to live freely. The only way to oppose them is by demonstrating the strength they think they have taken from us - the strength to keep on living, to keep on valuing life, to be what we chose to be and not what they want us to be.
And so I salute the spirit of this tremendously brave lady. Truly "A Mighty Heart" - she, who is perceived as one of our "ordinary heroes" is certainly not ordinary at all.
2 Comments:
when is the next update!!!
:) i did not see the movie, but i am very curious now. seems very interesting. not often u come across people with real substance.
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