ideologies and anguish
"Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together." Eugene Ionesco
While I was staying with my dear friend, Kelly, we watched Crash. Everyone should watch this movie. I wish I could show it to all of my students. I'm not here to give a critique of this movie so much as to reflect a little and apply to some recent healining events.
This movie made my soul ache. The kind of ache that has trouble finding words, and then when the words do come out, they just don't seem right. Yes, the movie is about racism; but, it's about so much more than that. It's about being human. And being angry. As I watched, I found myself wondering how I would react to the situations the characters found themselves in. Of course, I want to say that I would be a better person, that I would be more patient, that I would understand the other side of the picture. But would I? I found myself asking the questions again in the media frenzy over Mel Gibsons embarrasing outburst. What would I have done? If I were a big movie star with too much alcohol in my brain being arrested for DUI, what would I do? I have to admit that I would probably be victim to an angry outburst as well. Perhaps my verbal attack would have been differently aimed, but there would certainly have been an attack. I suppose I am admitting that we all have the potential to give in to racism, but I think so much more we all have the potential to intentially wound someone. Deep inside, we like hurting other people. It is our inherent sin nature. I've seen students do it before--forcibly wound another student, a student they actually like as a person, because they are angry with them at the moment. We are all human, filled with anguish, and in our darkest moments, we prey on that. Don't think I'm excusing anyone's selfish, hurtful, even racist behavior (though you'd be hardpressed to convince me that Gibson's actions prove he's a hardened anti_Semite). What I am saying is that we are all susceptible, especially when we aren't getting our own way. In an article in USA Today, Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the Nation Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, is quoted as saying that Gibson's slurs are "almost irrelevant. the more important point is: What do we learn about ourselves from incidents like this? The real issue is (what do we say) in our conversations with our children, in our boardrooms, when things get testy in our own lives, when we get pulled over by the cops. Can (Gibson's remarks) invite us all into greater awareness of our behavior when we are out of control in our own lives."
The most important thing about Gibson's foolishness isn't what it might say about him, it's what it should make us notice about ourselves. The greatest aspect of Crash isn't what it has to say about racism, it's what it has to say about humanity.