Digging their heels in, hatred and fear line up for the kill. Teasing us; attempting to destroy our will to resist them. We blame ourselves. Struggle to cope with everyday reality. There is nothing easy about grief, or struggling through a hardship in life. Everyone has immense challenges they face, with all the severity being relative to their own lives.
Words from those around us can fall on deaf ears. There will be times when nothing helps, and the idea of being open to forgiveness is inconceivable. But movies can be powerful. Something about certain stories captivate our hearts and change our outlook on reality. Something that transcends the silver screen. It reaches out to clasp us in its arms as if to say, "Hold on, and open your eyes. Breathe." They comfort us in our time of need. Saying what we need to hear, and suddenly we are not alone.
A story has resonated with me for years. The Drowning Man Trial, heard in the film, "The Interpreter." Silvia Broome works at the United Nations as an interpreter. She grew up in a turmoil-stricken part of Africa and after becoming part of an investigation involving a possible assassination attempt, her "bodyguard" (Tobin Keller) probes deeper into her troubled past. Before Tobin can name Silvia's dead parents and sister, who perished from a land-mine when she was a child, she stops him from continuing:
"We don't name the dead. Everyone who loses somebody wants revenge on someone, on God if they can't find anyone else. But in Africa, in Matobo, the Ku believe that the only way to end grief is to save a life. If someone is murdered, a year of mourning ends with a ritual that we call the Drowning Man Trial. There's an all-night party beside a river. At dawn, the killer is put in a boat. He's taken out on the water and he's dropped. He's bound so that he can't swim. The family of the dead then has to make a choice. They can let him drown or they can swim out and save him. The Ku believe that if the family lets the killer drown, they'll have justice but spend the rest of their lives in mourning. But if they save him, if they admit that life isn't always just... that very act can take away their sorrow."
Albeit fictional, this is amazingly profound. Not only are we given a choice in the darkest of days. But the opportunity to set our burdens free. Allow ourselves to no longer fear what imprisons us, but relinquish its grasp on our lives. Finding the strength to forgive even the most barbaric of circumstances. Giving the power back to ourselves.
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Suffering in silence is deadly. When I was in the military we were trained in suicide prevention. Personally, having friends that have killed themselves, I see this number as more than just a silly hotline. It could save someone's life. 1-800-273-8255 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
