Allow me to paint a picture for you of this fascinating story; Every morning the sun awakens with the perfect sunrise, colors bursting from the edges of the golden rays. Men and women can be seen walking about happily in the carefully paved streets and every passerby seems to have something kind to say to one another. This world seems to be living in the 1950's ish according to the fashion items each person is wearing with the men's high-waisted, pleated, wide-legged pants, and the women's prim dresses and hair. Everything is in its place down to the dog on the street, and every person has a purpose; to live their lives around Truman.
The Truman Show is a film about a fictional show created to give the world a glimpse of what it would be like to watch another person's life without giving them a script, without letting them know they are being filmed, and without the knowledge that their life is anything more than a normal life lived in a small town.
Truman, played by Jim Carrey, is the unsuspecting "star" of the show as his life has been recorded and broadcast to the outside world 24/7 from before he was born. After 30 years Truman begins to suspect something is not quite right with his perfectly played out saga and begins questioning every part of his known world.
This film has so many interesting topics to talk about but what stood out to me the most is this quote from the character Christof, played by Ed Harris:
We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented.
Christof makes this statement in response to the question of why Truman never seems to suspect that anything is different about his world, and why he has never found out about the show after 30 years. To which Christof responds:
We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented.
I find myself wanting to read this quote over and over again in order to fully understand it's implications.
Reality itself, though defined as an objective point of view, actually becomes subjective when we begin to "accept" life as it is versus believing that we have the power to ignite change. To accept the reality of a world is to see things the way they are and believe that this is what life has to offer. It is to understand that what you have been given is what you must receive and that perhaps there is no choice in the matter.
Though it may be hard to admit, I believe this state of acceptance happens to many of us. I know that acceptance of my presented world has tempted me many times to lay down the way I wanted to see the future and pushed me to see the world as a place where everything is set and where everyone has been dealt a hand of cards that is unchangeable.
But is this really true? Is the world so finite that the hand we are dealt gets to define who we can be?
In Poker, everyone is dealt a hand of cards, but the whole point of the game is not about the cards you have been given, it is about how you use the cards you have been given. In a game of Poker someone with lesser cards can win because of strategy and confidence even if they have been dealt a bad hand.
In the card game Magic The Gathering, players are allowed to take a "mulligan" which allows each player to look at their starting hand and determine if they would like to redraw their hand. This mulligan can get risky though as with every new draw you lose a card. So if you have a seven card hand to start with and take a mulligan, you will end up with six cards. Yet many times in this game having a couple less cards is worth the risk so you can start with a decent hand.
So what do Poker and Magic The Gathering have to do with freeing ourselves from our presented worlds? They are merely metaphors for life, but ones that we should not forget. They remind us that we have the ability to choose what we do with the hand we are dealt.
Having a choice can sometimes be more difficult than following instructions. This is because when we decide to choose, we become responsible for ourselves. Having a choice is a powerful powerful responsibility. It forces us to assess our risks, count our losses, and decide what is best for us as an individual.
When we choose to redraw the hand we are dealt we are now partly responsible for our win or loss of the game. When we choose to use our hand to bet higher and higher even when we could lose, we become invested in our fate. Sometimes we get the outcome we want, sometimes we don't.
So, is it worth the risk?
For some a risk might look like applying to your dream college instead of the one you know you can get into. Maybe a risk is beginning a new relationship with someone or ending a relationship that you know is unhealthy and hurtful.
Perhaps the ultimate risk is looking at yourself and sincerely believing that you are a capable and beautiful person who is worth investing in and chasing your dreams. Whether that dream is to become a professional pogo stick jumper or the president of the United States, no dream is better than another because no person is worth more than another person.
I think the risk is worth it.
It is worth the risk to find out who you are, not who your world tells you you are, but who you are meant to be.
It only takes one person to believe this about themselves to inspire multitudes of others. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harriet Tubman. These are people who believed in the power of their choices and the power of their dreams, and they changed their worlds. What if we were all like that?
What a world it would be. What a world it could be.
At the end of The Truman Show where the sky meets the water and the blue colored stairs lead to a dark doorway, Truman is presented with a choice: does he stay in his presented world, with his mundane job, without worries and without fear, or does he risk everything he knows and understands to finally chase his dreams and adventures, and to finally be himself...
You will have to watch the film and find out. :)
~Hannah
