and that is why God made the world

On board, flying from Singapore to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and back to Singapore over a three day period, I had multiple chances to partake of the inflight entertainment served on board.

I watched three interesting movies, Bonnhoffer, Chuck (The Life Of), Discovery (The)

. The alphabetical order aside, there was a philosophical theme to it. Serendipitous perhaps... but I also this gift to find patterns. And there certainly was a consistent theme threading across all three movies; and it is this: what is life and what do we make of ours?

In Chuck, a line in the Walt Whitman poem, Song of Myself, struck me, "I am large. I contain multitudes". Everything we see, everyone we know, every place we have been in, every day since birth are in our heads. Our whole universe, in fact. I recall the quote, that the drop in the ocean is also the ocean in a drop. It made me think of what we are to do with this life of ours, within this universe of ours. Chuck died at the age of 39 in the movie, a death he foresaw, and helped him resolve to live his life until it ran out. On his deathbed, Chuck could not remember much but he did recall his dance with a stranger one afternoon and the joy it brought everyone watching and despite all the pains in the universe, that is why God made the world.

Ironically, I watched Discovery because a life had just passed. Robert Redford's. He was 89. In the movie though he portrayed a scientist researching what happens when a life passes. He found that the consciousness does not die. It goes on to the next plane of existence. And that it its not merely a memory. That consciousness goes to a new place where it reimagines life's regrettable moments. It gives itself to chance to redeem past wrongs. And it can keep cycling back until the situation is corrected.

 Redford was one of the more decent humans in Hollywood. When President Obama awarded him the medal of freedom, his citation read "Robert Redford has captivated audiences from both sides of the camera through entertaining motion pictures that often explored vital social, political, and historical themes.

"His lifelong advocacy on behalf of preserving our environment will prove as an enduring legacy as will his pioneering support for independent filmmakers across America.". But even he would have his own demons. Perhaps his spirit is resolving those now.

Few of us however are as blessed as Bonhoeffer, who actually ran out of life at the age of 39 when he was hung by the Nazis. A Lutheran pastor and founder of the Confessing Church, he left notbone but two marks in the world. The first was his writings, including his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship, described as a modern classic, which shaped the place of Christianity in the secular world. The second was an act of courage at a time when few were prepared to be brave in Germany. Bonhoeffer staunchly resisted the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Nazi euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of Jews. He paid for these acts of defiance with his own life a mere two weeks before the Nazis fell. His own compatriot, Rev Martin Niemoller, penned these immortal words:

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me.

Bonhoeffer, however, dared to speak out and shall be remembered for it. What a legacy he has left.

And that is why God made the world.