TO LIVE!

Back in 1952, Akria Kurosawa made a film Ikiru, which means “to live.” It’s about a career bureaucrat, a minor cog in the huge Japanese government bureaucracy, who, along with everyone else there, spends his entire working life doing nothing and avoiding doing anything. When our protagonist, Kanji Wantanabe, discovers, indirectly, that he has a terminal stomach cancer he sets out on quest to find out what life is about. In the end he finds redemption in helping a neighborhood transform a toxic sewage spill into a playground for the poor children. The film is a good reminder about the purpose of life. "Not dead" does not mean "alive."

It is easy to get caught up in the routine of daily life, making a living, paying the bills, keeping ahead of the escalating demands of work and home. Americans work more hours on the job than any other industrialized nation, clocking up nearly two working weeks more than their counterparts in Japan, the second most worked people of the industrialized world. That does not give a lot of time for self-awareness or reflection. 

One of the purposes of my film series, Secrets of Life and Death, is to wake people up to their mortality before death comes knocking at the door. By acknowledging death, we may, like Kanji Wantanabe, be encouraged to have a more creative and fulfilling life. Death exposes the fragility and tenuousness of everyday life, of our whole material existence. This realization can be both ecstatic and shattering. Shattering if like Kanji we waste our precious time in mindless and meaningless repetition until it is almost too late. Ecstatic when we heed the whisper of our hearts and connect to those activities and things that nourish our souls. Death admonishes us to live more fully, to let go of minor irritations, to take chances, show up and pursue our most fervent desires, hopes and dreams.

Kanji shows us that helping others is a worthy pursuit. We do not even need to do something huge and dramatic. It could begin with a simple word of validation. Say something positive to the next person you meet and see how you feel.