"Flatliners:" Confronting the Issues of the Past and the Present
We watched the film Flatliners as the formative film viewing of this month. It is a story about a group of medical students uncovering the mystery of life after death engaging the power of physical science to find the answers which philosophy and religion has failed to satisfy.Watching this movie lets you confront these questions:
"What lies beyond death?"
"Is there life after death?"
"Are you afraid to die?"
As the story of the film unfolds, a different realization brazened out the bold medical students as they discover a very important aspect of dying in the form of the question:
"What have you done in your lifetime?"
As these medical students confront the 'ghosts' of their past, I could not but reflect on my own. On the day I die as I would meet my Creator, I would similarly render an account of how I have spent my the life He shared with me.
At first I thought that the intention of the film is to conscienticize us on the people we have hurt in our lifetime. But then, the essence of the film is to wake us up to the quality of life we had to live; that this life we are in charge of is connected to the network of "life" around us. We cannot enjoy this life as we trample on the life of others. This life is not only meant for ourselves. While we still have it, we cherish. We start to ask forgiveness. We begin to forgive others. We start caring for one another. We begin understanding and appreciating each other. We start loving one another. We begin doing what our hearts desire. We start living this life to its fullness; so that we wont end up as what Thoureau had said, "Oh God, to have reached the point of death without ever having lived at all."
We don't need to spend much in seeking for answers on "What lies beyond?" We rather start digging for "What lies the present?"
