Life IS tough.
And yet so beautiful.
Sometimes, in extremely radiant magnificence, when you look upon the face of your child and know, painfully deep in your gut, that you cannot possibly love anything more than that and the next moment, suddenly, realising you still can when love arrives unexpectedly at your door.
Other times, life is beautiful in its dark moments, when it feels like the whole world has abandoned you and those you love have betrayed you or given up on you, and when you find yourself standing at the end of the road or on a cliff overlooking the waves that will crash against the same rocks that your body will be crushed against should you decide to jump - why won't you, when all that's left is this overwhelming sense of desperation and loss - and suddenly realising a little to your left and right is a new path which means you still can walk on, spurred by curiosity maybe... or jumping off the cliff to discover you can fly, even if only just in a dream that lends a hand of hope you carry over when you awake.
Life is tough.
And all we are able to do about it is to take one more step forward, one more breath, another step forward, one more... just one more...
To discover that life is so beautiful.
"We're all miracles. People. We all are. You know why?" a loving mother asks her son, Ronnie, who is suffering from some psycho-sexual disorder, having been imprisoned for indecently exposing himself to a child. Ronnie has recently been released and is attempting and probably failing, to start anew and to leave behind his dark past.
"Because we live everyday, knowing that the things we love, the people we love, can be taken away anytime," she whispers tenderly. "But we keep going anyway."
That's exactly it. How do mere, fragile people find the strength to keep on going in the cocoons that come to enshroud their lives?
How does Sarah Pierce, played by Kate Winslet, a former Masters student in Literature (who was on her way to earning that PhD), trapped in a possibly loveless marriage, stuck in a suburban town that she is clearly suffocated by, and who hates that she has to care for her only child, keep her spirit intact? Why not just resign herself to her life?
How does Brad Adamson, played by Patrick Wilson, a former college football player, who has completed his Law studies but somehow just cannot pass the Bar exam, twice; who is the primary caregiver for his son while his stunning and glamourous wife "wears the pants" and makes documentaries, reclaim his lost masculinity? Why not just grow into the role he's found himself in?
How can Ronnie live in a town that fears him, hates him, wants him gone? How can he muster his psycho-sexual tendencies?
Sarah joins a book discussion group in the neighbourhood. They read "Madam Bovary", almost a parody of the movie. Madam Bovary engages in affairs to escape the banalities of married life, despite having a loving husband. Which is what Sarah does. She has an affair with Brad.
Brad joins a neighbourhood football team, fielded by police officers. He also watches young teenage skateboarders playing around the block every night. He eventually joins them – a foolish mistake. But he dared to make that choice.
Ronnie goes on a blind date though he must have been consumed by a fear of recognition for his past misdeeds and of his own acknowledgement of his inadequacies.
Are these right choices? I would say no, based on the "tragedies" that unfold.
All these choices speak of betrayals and fantasies, nothing more.
But there is something courageous in the choices made. None of these characters went off quietly into the dark night… none of them went down without a fight. Sounds familiar? ;)
Life is tough. It doesn’t always unfold the way we expect, hope or dream. But we still have choices. To accept our situation in life and wither away or to find means to rise above those situations, to take risks, to dare, to endure heartbreaks and to embrace failures that come with choices should they turn out to be mistakes.
The problem with making choices is we only realise what the correct ones are upon hindsight. With some choices, there are no rights and wrongs. But with those that do have a right and wrong, some can only be discovered later. Choosing the "right" thing can be an action borne out of love and respect… but it can also be done out of a fear of the unknown, a choice to remain nestled in security. Perhaps there is nothing wrong or right with either motivation and intention.
But when caught in situations like the characters find themselves in, in "Little Children", normal everyday circumstances that normal, everyday people face in their quiet personal heavens and hells, do we dare to choose to live, to embrace all consequences, come what may?
Without glorifying making stupid mistakes out of carelessness, recklessness and selfishness, the same stupid mistakes made out of a desire to desire, to dream and to live, can be brave, naive and innocent. Just like those little children make. And at the end of the day, the tagline of the movie reminds us, "Let the little children come to me."
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