Ordinary Life

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Liz West @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/

I watched the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a few of days ago. It was a true dramatic role for Brad Pitt, no fast action or death-defying feats – only brief romantic scenes and touches of misery and disappointment.

As I watched the story unfold, I began to realize Benjamin’s life as a whole was full of the same mundane passages that most people have through their lives. Yes, the strangeness of him starting out old and growing young is odd to say the least. Yet, in spite of the phenomena, his life went on pretty much like everyone else’s. True, he was abandoned, but surely, we all know that this happens in real life whether it should or not. His enlistment into the military is something common for the period of history within the story so I can’t see that being called extraordinary. The story is about an ordinary man, with the only kink being how he went from old to young.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the movie. I have it on DVD even though I chose to watch it on TV this time. I found the one kink in the story interesting. It was strange how it didn’t change the mundanity in his life. Somehow, without really saying so, the movie helps me bring my own life in to a perception that’s easy to understand.

Although I know that there are people who are in a constant state of excitement and chaos, I feel quite certain that most of us are leading lives that become dull more often than we’d like, even to the point of being depressing. From all the ‘noise’ I hear, a good number of people are feeling gypped because their lives aren’t all that they think they should be. Their reasons are based on one or two small incidences during some point in their lives, saying that phrase that starts out with, ‘If only…’, thinking that would have made the different.

My life, for the most part, is boring, with my days being repetitious and/or predictable. At least, that’s how most people would define it. Yet I can find enthusiasm within the small things that happen during the course of most of these days. Because they are the small things, there isn’t the disarray that would be there if they were commonplace in my life. There aren’t those apprehensions about tomorrow. My life has just as much meaning without all the razzmatazz. That meaning is more subdued and personal; and may actually have more significance in the larger scope of life than the demands of the lives that are so harried.

I wonder if those who want so much excitement realize what they’re asking for, what hornet’s nest they’re trying to stir up. These same people seem to be the ones who also complain about not having enough leisure time, time for their kids, time for themselves. They don’t realize that they are the cause of their own demise because they’ve made their lives too busy. They want someone else to figure out how to change their chaos into serenity for them.

Have you seen this movie? If so, did you enjoy it or were you disappointed in it?

How do you sum up your life thus far? Are you taking life as it comes, or are you pushing for more?

 

Related articles

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (synchronizedinthisworld.wordpress.com)
• “Ordinary” (collectionofclancy.wordpress.com)