The Ultimate Question

Just came back from watching 'Lady in the Water'. Like many other movies, I read the reviews before going to watch this one, and although the majority of the people who watched it did not like it, there are some who liked it very much, so I thought what the heck I'll still go ahead and watch anyway, cos the premise of the movie is interesting enough to pique my interest.

* Spoiler ahead! *

Half-way through the movie, I knew I liked it already. It has the right dose of humour, the adrenaline moments, as well as the many metaphors that I could resonate so much. I think I could understand why a lot of people could not see past the simple plot of this story, to them this is probably just about a fairytale brought forth to the reality and how people would react to it. The fact that the whole plot is played out straight just like a fairytale (without any of Night's signature end-twists) probably is what bored most people.

The other reason why I liked the movie is because I really liked the Healer character. He's the kind of guy whom I can imagine myself falling for, lol. Something about him being a silently grieving (who does not feel the need to tell the world that he is suffering) and funny (in an adorable way) guy make him very appealing to me.

I think the very fact that this movie plays out just like a fairytale without any pretension of being a horror movie or action movie is what makes it's undertone messages all the more clearer to me. It even pokes fun of itself from time to time with some very obvious clicheness of the genre, like the kid who does his intrepertations from the cereal boxes and the non-logical plots, which by the way is exactly what a fairytale is about!

I'm very much drawn towards the themes conveyed throughout this movie, because they reflect what I (and I believe many other people) have been pondering all these time: why is faith important and what is our purpose in life.

* End of spoiler*

As we got to know more and more things about our universe with the discoveries of science, we kind of out-grown the many mysteries and wonders that used to fuel our imagination. The result is that we gradually lose our own sense of wonder towards this world we live in. Nowadays people think fairytales are just for kids, or for those who can't cope with the harshness of reality.

In the movie some of the characters admitted that they wanted to believe in the fairytales. Personally I think it would be a very boring world to live in if we could explain everything with science and predict the outcome of everything by applying the law of physics.

Do you know why we need to believe in something that defies science? Because if we believe science to be the tautology of all things, then there is no purpose for us to be in this world, for according to science there is no continuation of life after death, upon death, we would just cease to exist from this universe. In this case, does ANYTHING matter after we past away?

Nothing matters. Cos we no longer exist and whatever happens to Earth or anyone we knew or loved are of no longer importance. To us who are dead, there is nothing.

We came from nothing and we returned to nothing.

This is what I call the 'Centre of universe theory', we ourselves are the centre of our own universe, when we died and returned to nothing, so does our own universe, because without our perception of the universe, there is no universe (think I repeated the word 'universe' too many times lol).

Here is where faith comes in, i.e. religions (or what I call fairytales with a heavy moral tone :-P). We know many religions (if not all) believe in the continuation of life after death. Why so?

Because only with the belief that Earth and the rest of the universe still exists after we died, can we justify that we have a purpose of being here. You see, in this 'Perpetual universe theory', we all play a part in the evolution of this universe, regardless of how small a fraction that might be. What we did during our lifetime here on Earth will leave a mark and will create many many micro 'ripple effects' on either people or events. I'm sure you have heard of the saying that 'the flapping of a butterfly's wings could cause a weather change on the other side of the globe' (or something similiar :-P)?

When you think about it, we humans have advanced so much beyond basic animal survival instinct compared to other animals on Earth, that we ponder the reason for our own existence. Do you think any other animals do that? Does a dog think about god and where it goes after death? Does a monkey think about the reason it exists?

So the question is, why are we even capable of thinking about our purpose in life? If our existence were meant to just propagate and participate in the grand evolution in this world like the rest of the animal kingdom, why do we possess this ability to think so much more beyond our own understanding of the universe?

I'm a person of logical deductions, as you can see, I seem to like to deduce a lot of such philosophical stuff on my free time, lol. Some people believe that there are things in this world that our mind would never be able to fully comprehend due to our inherent limit. Some people say that thinking too much into these philosophical theories will eventually make one insane someday, and I personally do agree to that, because if one is not careful and keep on dwelling too deep, he might not be able to break out of it and could actually lead to insanity. Like a recursive loop in programming, one might get stuck in the loop and never be able to get out.

Sometimes when I'm down, I think about all these purposes and meaning of life, and their relevency to me finding that elusive soulmate of mine. I don't know whether I even have one, but call it blind faith, I really want to believe that there does exist such a person out there.. somewhere :-)