Mind Blown But Not Changed

After picking my jaw up off the floor in Professor Leeper’s class today, I began to truly contemplate the human existence, my existence, and why it occurs. Yeah, it was that thought provoking of a class.

            To be fair, I had heard that something crazy was going to happen in class today… It did. Though I have seen shocking images and pictures throughout my life, I don’t know if I have ever seen such a blunt and darkly unexplained film as I did today. By no means was I scarred by the images of these people being massacred via exhaust from the truck. After all, this world has some pretty messed up stuff in it. However, I will say that it really opened my mind up to the raw power of people. That’s right, people… not film.

            I’m learning more and more each day that film is like a gun or a knife. Depending on the person wielding the tool, different results can occur. A film can save, a film can entertain, and a film can hurt. Now, am I saying that today’s films shown in class hurt me?

No.

In fact, in my life, it has been the films that are the hardest to watch that have helped me the most. The controversial film Das Boot instilled a respect of the military in me unlike any other film. The infamous documentary Dear Zachary gave me a glimpse (too large I might add) of the horrors that humans are possible of committing. Finally, Gran Torino prepared me for the scary gang experiences I may encounter while living in large cities.

Compared to many people, I have lived a very sheltered life. A strong church home, firm morals, good parents. Others of you out there have experienced unimaginable things and understand things differently than I do. What I am trying to say with this post is that we all saw different things in that German film today, but the fact remains the we can all learn something from it.  We are all sinners capable of doing evil. After all, we are the species that rebelled against God.

I will leave you with a thought that my wise Biblical History and Literature professor Papa Fetters said to my class today.

“The first question God ever asked the human race occurred when Adam was hiding from God due to his sin.” God asked, “Where are you?”

Isn’t that sad.

A tense scene from the film Das Boot. This is the film that instilled my respect of the military even more firmly, and that was despite the fact that the characters were Russian submariners.