Accept Where You Are

In an earlier film review from a different perspective, I wrote that when we’re down or in The In-Between we should remember that if one person could do it, so could we, and I recommended watching Invincible.  But sometimes, we’ve sunk even deeper and need more than that.

Yes, he lost his job and his wife not only left him, she left behind a note that would bring anyone to their knees.  Even so, he accepted where he was and trusted that he could change his situation.

But what if your failure was your inability to accept where you are?  And what if that meant dying—over and over again?

As a former therapist and someone who’s been here before, I know that making change requires that acceptance.  This is the film that helped me the most, the one that enabled me to fight back, and I have probably seen it six times by now.

Edge of Tomorrow

Synopsis

Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a public relations officer with no combat training, is dropped on the front line of the war with the aliens.  He dies within minutes, repeatedly, until he understands he’s in a time-loop and accepts it.  No matter how hard he tries to escape, he continues to die and wake up.

And then… Because he’s accepted it, he starts learning from everything that happens and does it differently!

He quits resisting.  He quits trying to escape.  He changes his actions based on what he’s learned, and he makes some progress, enough to get the attention of the Angel of Verdun, the billboard Special Forces Warrior.  And she’s a woman, Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who practices yoga where she practices her fighting techniques with machines designed to approximate the aliens.

When he saves her life in one of the cycles of live/die/repeat, she says “When you wake up, come get me.”

And with that encounter, which has to be repeated many times because he’s the only one in the time loop, the only one who remembers what happens, she gives him information about his live/die/repeat cycle and the skills to accept the greatest challenge in his life.  She knows what he’s experiencing!

Exemplary Quote

“How many times have we been here?  How many times?”  (Rita Vrataski)

“For me, an eternity.” (Major William Cage)

You’d have to watch Edge of Tomorrow as many times as Cage went through his live/die/repeat cycle to know how many times he failed before he was successful.  Fortunately, we don’t get stuck in time-loops.

Take-away

No matter how bad it is, we can change.  We can accept where we are, figure out how we got here (what choices we made), make peace with it, and choose how we want the rest of our life to be.  It doesn’t have to be the same.  No matter how old we are, no matter how poor we are, we have the power to change.

Till next time,

“Please be kind to everyone you meet, for we all have our hidden sorrows.” ~Tzaddi

Series:  Watching Movies from a Different Perspective

• Mirrors of Life on the Screen
• Love Affair with Movies
• Feeling Frustrated? Try SHOOTER!
• Determine What You Want In Your Partner
• Elizabethtown (Movie)
• Invincible