Live and learn.

Today has been really good and its not even over yet. I had class in which we focused on how characters would meet and be brought into narrative. We'd each written a short story about the same topic (what makes someone happy in Falmouth in 2006) and then had to create one narrative with the characters we had created. It was a really interesting task and then we watched a film after called 13 Conversations About The Same Thing.

It was a really great film which focused on six narratives. The main theme throughout the film was that each thing we do affects someone else. Sometimes we are aware of this, sometimes we are not. Sometimes these things are small but have huge consequences. For example, one character is contemplating suicide and says to herself that she will gauge the person opposite hers face to let her know if she should do it or not. The man she sees smiles and she says it is as if he has read her mind.

The film made me think about the way that we treat other people and how, if we knew everything that was going on in our lives, our behavior would be so much more different. I suppose that is kind of obvious and sometimes it seems as if, if we believe this, we are almost excusing someone’s short temper, bad attitude, violent tendencies and so on. But at the same time, it seems like something that we should try and do without really thinking about it. It seems a fundamental part of being human. I'm not saying that we should overlook someone killing another person because their childhood was troublesome, not at all. I just think that sometimes we need to look at the way we treat each other and assess whether it is behavior we would deem acceptable or not. I think we need to think about things more as cause and effect. Some people, myself included sometimes, say that (not verbatim), 'That bad incident was because so and so did this, that, the other.' If we take a step back it and evaluate the situation, we normally find that our actions have led to another’s. We are as much a part of a chain as someone else. At one point in the film, a man finally gets a job interview. It is raining on the day of the interview and so he runs for the train. The train doors are closing and the next two trains pass him by because they are full of commuters sheltering from the weather. The man mugs a tourist to get a camera from him but accidentally throws him on the track and he dies. The man goes to prison and is on death row. When asked what he thinks about all day, he replies, 'I just wish it hadn't been raining.' But for so many of us the rain can take on a different form: an abusive parent, a partner that left us, a lover who cheated. Nothing we can do can change the past. We need to recognize this and, at some point, move on. In this example, the man’s intent to mug was wrong anyway, not as final as murder, but morally wrong. At some point in all of our lives, we make mistakes and we do things without thinking, sometimes to the detriment of others. We need to learn from these mistakes and try to ensure we don't make them again. Live and learn I guess.

Anwyay, enough of that. Actually, yesterday I witnessed someone’s actions affecting someone else first hand. I was sat eating my lunch in the canteen. It was teeming down outside and I saw this man struggling up the stairs with loads of photography equipment. This girl came bounding up the stairs behind him. I thought she was going to stop and open the door for him. Instead she flung the door open, dashed inside and let the door slam on his face. I just thought that was so rude. Maybe you might think that I should have got up and opened the door for him. Maybe I should have. The point is though, that I was watching both people and just assumed she would help him. She didn't. Maybe that's as much a learning part of the day as my lesson was. We shouldn't be so assuming that someone else will do anything. We should maybe make sure we do it ourselves. I read once that you can't change anyone else’s actions, but you can change your own. Which is very true. I suppose you have to start with yourself before you can get anything else to change.

Anyway, enough now. I'm going for a drink before an early night and a 6.57am train in the morning. Sick.

xx