"We can't say when it ends. We never could. But, we can choose how we live in it." The Old Guard
There is an old theme that runs though many films that I have become more understanding due to having lived through it, though I didn't realize it til I was watching The Old Guard, today. It is also present in Supergirl that I plan to rewatch this evening. It can also be seen in Hancock and others. In the stories, someone faces hardship and learns that they can overcome it.. that they can overcome, anything. That is an important step in the story, but it is just a step, and though many remain there there is more to learn.
The other day I saw an old meme that I shared in years past when I was looking at my Facebook memories. In essence, it was noting that there is a difference between being nice and being kind. There can be people that are nice but not kind and people that can be kind but not nice. Let's put a pin in that for a few minutes and return to The Old Guard.
It is a good movie about a group of people that were chosen to become immortal and not die. In not dying but constantly seeing evil around them, it is easy to get jaded, and the longest living of them and the leader had become just so jaded. She tries to comfort a new member, but the best she could say is, "I know this is hard, but it is happening, whether you like it or not." That's that first step, again. Acceptance and knowing you will move forward.
In part of the movie, the leader is injured, and a woman helps her. The leader says, "You haven't asked." The woman replies, "Your business is your business. You need help. What does it matter why?" The kindness in that action makes an impression on the leader.
That's getting back to the difference between being nice and being kind. Nice is just being civil and courteous and pleasant to others. Kind is helping those in need, and the path to that is not always easy or pleasant. It may take a toll on you, along the way, as it did for for the leader.
Yet, even in her despair, she picked up an ax to rush into danger to help those in need. She tells her team, "We can't say when it ends. We never could. But, we can choose how we live in it."
And that is the key. As she also says, she was reminded that there are people worth fighting for in this world. There are people worth kindness and care and help and our best, even if it the path is difficult and not the safest. As her team tells her captors in a scene, it isn't her time. If it was her time, there is nothing you could do to stop it.
So, in the time that you have left, before you come to your end, how do you want to live? Who do you want to help? You may be feeling your destiny is fated and sink away into self imposed exile and increasing loss, or you can pick up your ax (not literally) and say "Enough of this sht" and do your best to make your days count until they run out. That is my plan.