a sense of touch

even if i had watched this film a number of times, there is a particular scene that never fails to move me.

when the racist and lecherous officer attempts to rescue the incapacitated woman, a woman he just molested the night before, she understandably and heartwrenchingly pleads and screams : "NOT YOU! SOMEBODY ELSE, PLEASE! ANYBODY BUT YOU!"

this scene moves me for two reasons. the first is the primal fear and hatred that she has for the officer. the second is the ironic outcome of the officer having to ask for the woman's permission to TOUCH her in order to free her from the seatbelt's grip. allow me to elaborate my views further.

it is important to notice that for a moment, the woman forgets that her life is in danger. upon seeing the officer's face and recognizing him as the violator of her dignity, she forgets that she is about to die. in this case, her survival instinct is overwhelmed by other forces - HATE & FEAR.

hate & fear make us forget that we are destined to live. hate & fear make us forget who we are and who we are with. hate & fear reduce us to instinctive animals - screaming, scratching and gnarling at anything that tries to come our way. hate & fear removes our capacity to recognize a face who at that very moment may care. hate & fear prevents us from taking a hand which at that very moment may be reaching out to ours. hate & fear causes us to focus on our wounds, on our pains, on our tragedies. we rant on endlessly. needlessly. nauseously. we become broken records of our own broken-ness.

hate & fear make us forget who we are and what we are capable of. we are far more capable than hating or fearing all the time. we are far more capable than closing in to our own world and shutting everybody out. we are far more capable of living life freely, of sharing a love fully, of being humane completely.

how do we move out of hate & fear? the film is very clear on this point. we move out of fear & hate NOT by pouring out fear & hate in return. we move out of fear & hate by TOUCHing the lives of others and allowing others to TOUCH our own.

it is with a TOUCH that the officer freed the woman from the obstructive seatbelt. it is with a TOUCH that the officer comforts her after he saves her from the blazing inferno. by not giving up on her even if he was already pulled out by his companions, by choosing to go back to pull her out from a certain death, he realized he could no longer be the man he was before. that he could no longer live the way he did before. by TOUCHing her, by FREEING her, he profoundly FREED himself.

i know that you have been hurt once before. all of us have once swore never to be fooled again, never to trust again. we have seen how cruel some people can be. how cruel this world can be. if one were to be truly honest and reflective, we have even seen how cruel we can be.

now i'm not going to say that everybody you meet from now on would be kind, that the world would be a perfect place just because you watched CRASH.

the question in life is, in the midst of people's unkindness, in the face of people's indifference and lack of concern, DO YOU DO THE SAME? when people refuse to TOUCH each others lives and choose to spill out words of and act from HATE, IGNORANCE and FEAR, DO YOU RESPOND IN KIND?

do you also speak and act from HATE, IGNORANCE and FEAR?.

as the movie has artistically shown, we can never help "CRASHING" into each other's lives. i am here and you are there. wherever you are, other people will be with you. we cannot spend our lives shouting "NOT YOU! SOMEBODY ELSE, PLEASE! ANYBODY BUT YOU!" if we do, we will end up dying in an overturned vehicle of our pains, fears, hatred and sidetracked dreams.

take a chance. TOUCH someone's life.

a faith-ful God

a fresh start.

a clean slate.

it may not be obvious but that is what is given to us every second, every moment. a fresh start. a clean slate.

think about it. when was the last time you committed a blunder you felt your world was about to end? when was the last time you made a mistake, you felt that you would never recover?

did the world come crashing down on that very instant? did the walls come tumbling down? did the ground shake and open its cracks to swallow us whole, did the churning sea send out a devastating wave to drown us or the mighty heavens roar in righteous anger?

NOPE.

even during moments when we feel lost and alone, such feelings will soon pass. when we compose ourselves and allow our emotions to settle down, we realize, there is something bigger than our mistake. there is someone bigger than our problem. there is someone more overwhelming than our tragedy.

OURSELVES.

we are bigger than any mistake. we are greater than any problem. we are more overwhelming than any tragedy.

whatever may happen, we will endure.

so what if you got a failing grade during the midterm? so what if you are already the frontrunner for Mr. & Ms. Tardiness for the third term? so what if you haven’t even seen our blog? so what if you've been wasting the past 15+ years of your life?

that was THEN.

NOW is um… well, for lack of a better term, NOW.

now, you are given the chance. in fact it’s more than a chance, it’s an opportunity. hey, let’s go even further. it’s not only an opportunity, it’s a GIFT.

why? nature never gives you second chances. in a jungle world, survival of the fittest is the only law. eat or be eaten. kill or be killed. no if’s, no but’s. no “sir kasi, traffic” no “sir, i wasn’t able to wake up.”

having a second chance is not a right but a GIFT. if it is a gift, it comes from someone special. as with all gifts, it comes from someone who believes in you, probably more than you believe in yourselves.

thankfully, we have a God who believes in us, infinitely more than we believe in Him.


*for a related entry, see my own personal blog at http://woodpaths2.blogspot.com/2005/12/faith-ful-god.html