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Sometimes, we come across people and deem them to be likable. Our premise of liking them is certain parts of them that we find admirable. “I like his sense of humor”, one said. What if that was his way of ridiculing you? What if his laughter was just a façade?
Sometimes, we fail to see the whole being. The beauty of perceiving a whole being is that you get to see both the good as well as the bad. We all have flaws but let’s be honest, are all flaws forgivable? No, we have to judge how much of a bad can we tolerate in a person? Is he/she feeding his/her demons more than the angels?
Last year, I saw Flipped. There is some charisma in movies that seem simple but are instead complex. Flipped is no different. When I first saw the movie, happy vibes settled within my heart because of its old school romance ambiance. Only after I watched it a second time, I realized that the movie is trying to convey something more important.
When I watched it, I felt as if the romance was only the backdrop and not the “main” theme of the movie. One of the lessons that I took from it was of the importance of our “character” and how it defines humility.
I learned my lesson when a particular scene caught my attention. The female protagonist, Juli is head over heels in love with the male protagonist, Bryce. Like a typical plot, the boy does not feel the same about the girl. He does do not reciprocate her affection.
One day, while completing his painting of neighborhood Sycamore tree, Juli’s father asks her what it that she likes in Bryce. Flushed, she takes her time over the question. Once she is finished pondering over the question, she answers that she likes his eyes, lips and many ‘different’ things. After listening to her daughter, the father explained that what is she currently looking at is just a part of a whole human being.
That is, Bryce is more than his eyes and his lips. He is more than the sum of different parts that she just mentioned. He shows her daughter his painting and tries to explain that none of the elements alone be it the sun or the sycamore tree could have made the impact the whole painting was making. While the painting was the sum of these elements but when it was finished, it was more than those individual elements.
Her father later asks her when she sees him as a whole, does the boy qualifies as a candidate for her affection? That’s when she realizes that it has been only one-sided love escapade. Bryce neither showed any interest nor respected her affections. It was time to move on.
We all are selfish but as humans, we still have humility in our sub-conscious that makes us react to situations that demand our attention. It is our duty to restore our humility in the present and the conscious. As they say, people will not remember you for what you did but for how you make them feel.
According to me, Bryce wasn’t wrong. He did the same mistake committed by Juli. He only saw Juli affections in terms of her offerings that made him immediately to conclude that she was annoying. Had he tried a bit, he would have realized that they both owns their own kind of universe which when merged would create magic. Thankfully, his grandfather realized it and help him see the “bigger picture”.
A small scene was all it required for me to learn this little yet important lesson. Have you watched the movie? What is your favorite part of it?
