You may know how to fly an airplane from reading a book. But it is until the moment you actually get into a plane and fly, that you’ll find out whether you really can. You may know everything there is to know about wine. But it is until the moment that you taste it, that you’ll find out whether you even like it or not. You may be an expert on Johannes Sebastian Bach, but without having heard his music, what do you really know about him? This scene from the movie classic ‘Good Will Hunting’ is about the difference between knowledge and experience. Having knowledge without experience, makes you smart maybe, but not wise. The character Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is about to find that out. He is smart, very smart. In fact, with his extremely high IQ he outsmarts everybody. Even his therapist (Robin Williams). Almost, because in this scene Williams explains quite impressively the difference between knowledge and experience. It’s a call to us all, to dare to experience. To dare and live.
Tag Archive: movie
Even when we’re frustrated with something, like our job or rude people in the streets, we tend to not really show it. For a large part because we are taught to remain calm, to keep our cool, to control ourselves and play it safe. So that’s what we do, most of the times anyway. And this can go on for years. For years we can have the job that we know isn’t going to make us happy. For years we can tolerate rude people being rude etc.. I recently stumbled upon this video. It’s called ‘Get mad as hell’. It’s a dialogue from the 1976 movie ‘The Network’ and a great dialogue it is. Although the story is set in the 1970’s, the dialogue could be about 2011. In fact it could be about you about you and I: to get mad as hell, to not take it anymore. To not take what anymore? Well, anything we’re unhappy with, but don’t show. And if you like, here’s the original footage (quite brilliant too).
Now this may be a guys thing. You know, a motivational speech in an American Football movie. But I felt like posting it because of the intensity of it: being vulnerable can be so powerful. The movie is called ‘Any given sunday’. The actor is Al Pacino. The speech is about winning or losing and that the difference between them is a matter of inches. To fight for these inches and be willing to die for these inches, that’s about living. Nobody can do that for you. Only you can – alone or with others.
You’ll enjoy this video, especially when you are familiar with Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now and like Jim Carrey. As it turns out, the famous Hollywood movie star is a friend of Tolle. In this video we see Carrey at the opening of the 2009 GATE Event, introducing his friend to the audience. But before doing so, he shares his own experience with what’s called ‘Awakening’ (in The Power of Now) and also he’s openly discussing his pursuit for meaning and purpose. Oh, and he’s funny too.
When the stakes are high, you sometimes go low. This scene from the movie Jerry Maguire, proves exactly that. Tom Cruise’s character Jerry Maguire is at the verge of a nervous breakdown. He just got fired and tries desperately to keep as many of his clients on board, for his yet to start company. Too bad, everybody let’s him down. He’s in a free fall and with his least valuable client on the phone, wasting his time, he’s about to hit rock bottom. But the great advantage of hitting rock bottom is that you can’t fall any deeper. And so, as the story unfolds, this ‘least valuable client’ turns out to be his most valuable client in many ways. But as you’ll see in this scene: Jerry isn’t aware of that yet.
I’ve always loved this scene from the 1995 movie Forrest Gump. It’s about Forrest who’s life has become complicated to handle, so on one morning he decides to go for a little run. While running he decides to run a little further, and further, and ultimately running from ocean to ocean, clear across the country. Finally after more than 3 years of running he decides to stop and go home. He reflects on this later saying: “My mother always told me: you’ve got to let the past behind you, before you can go on. And that’s what my run was all about”. It was about clearing his mind. This scene captures this process of clearing the mind – or a journey if you will – in a truly beautiful way, accompanied with some great music. Whenever I see this, it actually clears my mind too.
