There are times when some words (or phrases) get stuck to your memory – either from a book, a film or even a random expression from a lay person ! For movie and lit buffs this can happen often, for writers do come up with lines, which in context appear path-breaking and pithy but taken outside, compel reflection on the larger meaning that can be attributable to them.
A phrase that recently quite caught my imagination were the intriguing lines – “..from somewhere between nowhere and goodbye” as said by the wise, down and out prize fighter, describing the main protagonist of the movie, whose past was made up of dereliction and deprivation of life’s basic needs (from the 2004 Oscar winner, film-drama ‘Million Dollar Baby’). But was it more of a metaphor than an expression ?
Taken in a larger context, what do such words signify ? It can be the story of those who fight an identity crises (being nowhere), struggling to find a new one for a better tomorrow, perilously jumping off beaten paths ( goodbye ).
Many people living ordinary lives, working in firms and offices, feel they are not in a good position in life, not really heading anywhere and they know given half a chance, they’d love to say good-bye to all of it.What a gutted feeling and what it does is to keep away positivity and happiness at arm’s length.
On another level, aren’t we all (specially those battling mid-life crises and onset of old age) hanging between the imagery and physicality of beauty and the realization that it’s time to say goodbye to the impetuousness of youth and its trappings , yet fight the perennial struggle to remain somewhere in-between !
All of that and am still wondering – that being somewhere can still be better than being nowhere (and with no meaning for existence) and it’s hard but better to say goodbye to those things and people, that time and life have decided for us.
Working on Living 