What was the best truism, or life lesson you have taken from a film or book?
Mine is funny to me because it did not come from a really deep movie. Not “Citizen Kane”, or “Casablanca”. It was from, of all things, “Defending Your Life”. Remember? The silly Albert Brooks movie about the guy who dies and has to prove that he lived a good life in order to “advance”?
It’s the part where the lawyer character is explaining peoples’ biggest challenge is. He says most people spend their lives learning to deal with fear. Conquering fear is the most important thing for a person to do in order to improve themselves.
That always stuck with me. In looking around at people I knew, I realized how many of them held themselves back in many areas simply because of fear. Consequently, I’ve made a point of trying to face any fears I have. Although I’m not a daredevil by nature (no desire to run with the bulls, skydive, etc.), I have taken a few very unorthadox paths in my life, for which I am extremely grateful.
Dropping out of college for a few years, for example, was terrifying for me. But I did it, worked for a while, and then returned when I was ready. Best decision I ever made. I ended up getting more out of my education than a lot of people, and my life took many interesting turns in the interim.
So what pearls of wisdom have you taken away from a film or book that significantly helped you cope with life?
If you’re going to plot a coup against the emperor, a man who can have you put to death in any number of gruesome ways, it’s PROBABLY not a good idea to tell a chatty 8 year old about it.
If you’re an evil supervillain and James Bond has finally fallen into your clutches, just shoot him dead on the spot. On no account tie him up, explain in great detail your plans for world domination and leave him to die at the mercy of some fiendishly painful, but ultimately fallible machine.
Not really from a movie or a book, but a TV show…
Never go ANYWHERE that Angela Lansbury’s gonna be. People have a mysterious way of dying when she’s around.
Actually, though, I think I’d have to say, from Stephen King’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes:
“Why do bad things happen to good people? Because they can.”
There are many little lessons in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. I could list many favourite episodes, events, and quotations from the series, but I’ll try to keep the thread on track with lessons.
The following are, to me, excellent words to live by from Gaiman’s Sandman series:
