Last night brought me to the local video rental store-a favourite of mine since I moved to this neighbourhood because of it's selection of classic and foreign films. I ended up with two foreign films: Tulpan from Kazakhstan and Departures from Japan. Ready to experience other worlds, I headed home.
Tulpan was set in the Kazakhstan steppe and featured the Kazakh desert, sheep, camels, and the day-to-day existence of the nomadic people who live there. Asa, the main character, is a young man living with his sister, brother-in-law, and their three children in a tiny yurt. He dreams of having his own yurt, sheep, land and family, but the boss will not give him his own herd until he is married. The only young woman on the steppe lives a day's drive away, and rejects Asa's offer of marriage immediately to pursue her dream of going to college. Asa becomes despondent, but ultimately continues to follow his dreams on the sandy plains of the steppe.
Their existence is entirely different than our own, but when you strip away houses, education and technology, it exposes basic human experiences. To dream. To fear. To hope. To desire.
The other film, Departures was about a man who thought he knew what he wanted: to play the cello. But when life did not turn out the way that he hoped, he found unexpected meaning in a career preparing bodies for funerals, and was able to deal with pain from his past. He had to experience dying to appreciate living.
I can appreciate this paradox- working among the mortally ill changes me. Life is for living. We only have one chance.
Ultimately, that is what this challenge is about...living my life to its absolute fullest. Realising that life will never be complete on earth. Looking to heaven.
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