Breathing Room

Inside Man

I went to see Inside Man this weekend and it was surprisingly good. I thought the previews weren't that great and Denzel seemed to be saying the same things in the same voice - but it turns out he wasn't. Lucky for me.

This movie got me and Dave to talking about whether or not a person could be spiritually absolved of serious past transgressions. I mean if you took money from the Nazi's for years and didn't do anything to help people who you considered friends (who eventually died) and years down the line you ended up financially wealthy and tried to "heal" your past by doing all types of charity work and giving money to different organizations, does that make you even?

Now I know many people don't believe in God and/or everyone has their own belief but putting that aside for a moment I honestly think that is something almost impossible to free yourself from.

Personally I've always been one those people with a terrible conscience. I can't really lie straight without being paranoid that everyone knows I'm lying and I ultimately always end up feeling terrible when situations take a turn for the worse when I know I could have done better or I didn't do enough (my obsession with my upstairs neighbor!). But my conscience is a major reason why I'm so empathetic towards people. At the end of the day you have to live with yourself. If your spirit or soul is really dark I don't think you can really get away from it unless you truly want to repent or change your life and really be brutally honest with who you are.

Everything takes work. A lot of work. I'm still learning that everyday. The main reason most people can't keep their New Year's resloution is because they don't want to do the actual work it takes.

In the film there is this one part where Denzel tells this cop who's telling him a story to tell him the story minus all of the racial slurs. The man sighs as if this is a tough request. He tells Denzel, he'd rather live as a bigot then not live at all. Now I understand when you have a brush with death you realize how much you were taking for granted and how precious life is...but must we really resign ourselves to being bigots or selfish or angry or whichever mask we switch between depending on the situation?

I'm probably not making any sense and that's what happens when I ramble in my head and then try to put my thoughts into words...but go see Inside Man, you're sure to have some insightful conversation (hopefully) afterwards.