Minimalism and Forrest Gump

I could put my Netflix subscription to good use this weekend. I watched a documentary ‘Minimalism’ and a movie ‘Forrest Gump’.

 

Minimalism

First about Minimalism. Everyone wants a thing or two. A house, a car, that nice dress, a pair of shoes, the nice jacket in which you would look like a hero, a goggle that would make you appear cool, a washing machine to help you at home, an air conditioner to take off your body heat, nice mattress to put you into sleep and so on. There is no end to what we wish to have. With each thing we assume our life will become better. Once we have it, our attention moves on to the next thing. Possessing them become the objective of our lives. It goes on and on. We never become satisfied consumers. We go on to think consumption indicates how well we are faring in our lives. 

What if all our understanding was wrong? A day might come (in this life or next) which would make you realize you had enough. Then you don’t want to have two dozen T-Shirts, 8 pairs of shoes, 3 cars, 2 holiday homes. You want to dispose them or donate them or sell them off to lead a simple life of minimalism. And there are many who are doing this already. They can fit all their belongings into a briefcase and just live off with it and liking it too. Well, that would cause immense injury to the economy of the world. But being happy and content should matter more than economy.

Watching this documentary reinforced my belief of less is more. I am a minimalist in my own way but have shortfalls too. I have already cleared my wardrobe, and also reduced my hoarding of books. But there are many actions I need to take yet. Watching this documentary may or may not lead you to minimalism but can at least ring a warning bell to relook at your life of hoarding things.

 

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump, a Tom Hanks starrer, is a 1994 movie. But my fate had it to watch it now. Protagonist of this movie, Forrest Gump, is a hard to believe character. A kind of mentally challenged person and a complete innocent too. He has only one friend, Jennie, in his childhood. Despite his shortfall to live a normal life, wild circumstances make him get a college degree, become a sportsman, join military, and fight Vietnam war. There he makes friends who look uncommon too. He gets a medal for his war services and is eventually discharged from the duty and returns home. 

All these times there was only one person on his mind, Jennie, his childhood friend who took a different path in life. When he meets her, he expresses his love and intention to marry but she knows Forrest is an immature person and she does not agree. But their lives go on interweaving but on and off. Forrest goes on to buy a boat to fish shrimps as he had promised to his friend during the times of war. He becomes a rich person. And Jennie comes back into his life only to go missing again. Forrest confused in his life runs across the country for years attracting public attention. He gets tired and returns home. 

Again, he gets to meet Jenny and he learns that she has become a mother to his kid. This time she marries Forrest, but time is not on her side. She is sick and dies soon. In the last scene of the movie, Forrest is left with young son as life companion and a flying white feather in the scene symbolizes randomness of life. 

While it is hard to believe a person like Forrest Gump would exist in real life, a part of him is inside everyone of us. That is why he touches our hearts, and the movie has remained relevant and worth watching.