It is one of my favorite movies of all times. It is one of the best movies of all times. And still, my thoughts on it have changed over the years. Today I want to share some of them with you:
1. Carpe Diem.
God, how I loved this phrase, when I was younger. I stood there, with the students in the movie,. In front of the pictures. And listened to John Keatings „seize the day“. And I believed it. I was overtaken by it. But what does it really mean? Nowadys, we have YOLO - you only live once. But it doesn‘t mean quite the same thing. Still, it gives you the feeling, each day you aren‘t doing something extraordinary, is a day wasted. And how often are you doing something extraordinary?
2. The human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.
Doesn‘t it sound beautiful? If you aren‘t passionate about what you do, then you waste your life. But what if you have to be an accountant to support your family? What if you can‘t write poetry? Or at least not good enough to sustain your life? What if you do not have just one passion, not just one true calling? It sounds beautiful. And perhaps it is the lack of poetry in our lives that most of us feel miserable. I don‘t know. But perhaps it is the inability to find beauty in every day, in ordinary things, in necessities.
3. When you read, don't just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think.
This is absolutely true. You have to think for yourself. And a book is only what its reader makes with it. But you shouldn‘t ignore the authors intentions. You can argue with the bible for almost every opinion. With statistics you can prove everything - depending on how you read it, and what you emphasize. You shouldn‘t read blindly. But you probably shouldn‘t think too highly of yourself, either.
4. There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for.
It is a line often forgotten. We watch this movie and think about how you should have the courage to think your own thoughts. To live your own life. But we forget to be cautious. We forget, that sometimes we should take a step back and think before leaping forward. We always consider ourselves wiser than we are.
5. No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.
Sure, they can. Cause they form our believes - and therefore our actions. In the end it isn‘t words or ideas. It is actions that form the world. Our minds shape our reality. Words have meaning. Ideas are important. All that is true. But if you stay in your own world, caught up in your own thoughts and ideas, what good are you to the world? I used to think very hightly of all the philosophers, I have read Sophies World a thousand times. But what good are words without action? or even worse with contradicting actions?
6. „Show me the heart unfettered by foolish dreams, and I'll show you a happy man." - "But only in their dreams can men be truly free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be."
Why do they have to be exclusive of one another? Why can‘t both statements be true? When I was young, I learned to see the world in black and white. And I believed, that Keating was right and good and the establishment was wrong and bad. But I grew up to see all shades of grey (not only 50) and other colors, too. Dreams are important. We need something to persue. We need something to aim at. But we have to realize when our goals are foolish, unrealistic. I can dream about being the world most famous dancer - alas, I lack the talent in reality.
7. I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.
Another truth, we tend to forget when growing up. We build our believes, and then we hold on to them. If somebody challenges these believes, we see them as enemies. We fight for our believes. Hell, we fight for peace with weapons and by killing people. As children we wonder, as adults we know.
8. Truth is like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold. You push it, stretch it, it'll never be enough. You kick at it, beat it, it'll never cover any of us. From the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream.
We teach our children to always tell the truth. „You told me everyone was alike and deserved a fair break. But you meant everyone who was like you. You told me you wanted me to change the world, to make it better. But you meant by becoming a lawyer or a Doctor and marrying someone from Harvard.“ as Baby Houseman puts it in Dirty Dancing. We want our children to believe our truth. But The Truth isn‘t always what we think of it. And as much as we say that we want the truth, we scream an d shout at it, when it hits us in the face. „You can‘t handle the truth“ (Col. Nathan R. Jessup)
9. I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived.
Oh, Henry David Thoreau. That‘s the problem with poetry. It puts images and dreams in your head, but it doesn‘t give you practical guidance. Should we all go and live in the woods? Perhaps. But what would we miss! Again we come to YOLO. But how can we decide beforehand what experiences are worth making? How can we know beforehand what is or is not life? Isn‘t it more true, that only at the end we will know for sure?!
10. Mr. Keating put us up to all this crap, didn't he?! If it wasn't for Mr. Keating, Neil would be cozying up in his room right now, studying his chemistry, and dreaming of being called doctor!
Oh, how I loved to hate Cameron. That snitch. That selfish little bastard. But he was right. Without judging his action as good or false - it was Mr. Keating putting these thoughts into their heads. He fell pray to his own believes - he, too, wanted them to think freely, meaning to think like him. He didn‘t consider how it could mess up their lives. Sure, he had the best of intentions. But the way to hell is covered with good intentions.
11. Oh Captain, my Captain
Even after all these years, I still would stand up on that desk. Because in the end, I believe in things like truth, freedom and free thinking. In the end, I am deeply convinced that you need a Mr. Keating to open your eyes for another point of view. In the end, you need someone to look up to and to follow - even if it‘s only part of the way. And even if you realize half way, that you can‘t follow them any further.
Dead Poets Society is a great movie. And I love to watch it. I am no longer blindly in love with Keatings teachings. But I still love the beauty and the depper truth in them. My experiences have formed my believes. But I try, now and then, to look at things differently. To try other point of views. To try to understand another person. It doesn‘t mean that I have to change my believes, but it doesn‘t mean either, that challenging my believes is a danger to my existence