When we think of this verse from Forrest Gump the first thing that comes to mind is humor.
Most people laugh and find humor in it because of the way that Forrest says the phrase very slowly and without worrying about what others will think of his words or actions. He said the words authenticlly. In today's society finding someone that is authentic is very rare.
My late Grandmother once told me that "While you are beautiful now, one day you will be as ugly and wrinkled as a prune and then what are you going to fall back on?" Thinking about this for a minute I said "My brain because sometimes it is bigger than my whole body put together!"
But you get the meaning of what I am trying to say here. Her words taught me to be thankful for being beautiful on the inside.
Something happens to us when we realize this.
In the movie Forrest doesn't purposely say things that we percieve as dumb or stupid but this is how others react.
They think of him as dumb, one friend even called him retarded. In the movie Forrest couldn't help the fact that he had two handicaps against him from the start.
One was what we would call a slow learning disorder and the other was a physical handicap with his legs that forced him to have to use braces for years of his life in his youth.
We have all had a friend or family member that lives simply like Forrest Gump. These people never try to impress people with any big city talk, slick tongues, or try to sucker people into liking them with some flea market salesman type of persona. Going through life is hard enough on these wonderful souls. The endure so much and ask for so little in return.
In my own life, my mother and daughter have several of the characteristics of Forrest. They struggle with people laughing at them and poking fun at their expense all the time. Even in places like Church, where the love of Christ should be the focus of their joy and not being labeled and picked on or called retarded. To these people, they don't even know that they are simple folks, but in their lives they get called much worse.
People can be so cruel. Even people in high up positions that should be kind and know that it is their job to be kind (like Teachers and Pastors Etc..) but yet so few of them do this in their daily lives. Why could they be so unaccepting and prejudgemental of people that are different from themselves? It is in their belief system. Not their spiritual system.
In our spiritual life we should love our fellow man as we love ourselves. This brings us closer to God.
To the rest of us that are regular people, we know this. This one little fact is what connects us to others and by doing this we acknowledge the presence of God within these people. When we go to a Guru or Spiritual Teacher we are taught this. It would be very difficult for people with a narrow or closed mind to practice this act of compassion and non-judgement. This is awareness. This is true enlightenment.
But on a wiser note here, life really is like a box of chocolates. :)
This theory rings true for me because when you open the box [which is your life], you don't know if the candy is going to be crushed or damaged in some way, or some particular flavor (or race of people) that you might not like and the feeling that we get when things do go right and we open the box and it is just what we wanted (which in life does not happen for us very often), or this "rush" or excitement that we get from eating chocolate (or when things go properly in our lives) is soothing and comforting and thrills us like nothing else!
But if we let this love go to far then we can develop disorders or addictions.
It takes a lot of kindness to go through this life.
Feeling the one-ness or connectedness with others is vital and it is not easy.
It honors us, and it honors God when we do this in our lives every day.
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