What would your reaction be if people around you consider you a stupid and more than that, they curse you with several different synonyms of that every now and then? Well, if you were really stupid, you wouldn’t know what they are talking about. It is a general tendency of people to mock someone’s disability rather than feeling sympathetic to him.
If a person is physically or mentally disabled, he deserves a special treatment, extra care, because, well simply, he is anything but normal. And that abnormality is not something he wished for or in other words, it is not his fault that he is not a normal person. One should perceive the situation from other side of the fence and then only will it dawn how painful it is to be disabled. And when such a person with lesser resources ends up being successful in almost all endeavors in life, you cannot but feel heartened.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~
When I first watched Forrest Gump, I had several different feelings passing thru my mind and heart. At different stages of the movie, you feel sad, excited, poignant, depressed, encouraged, outraged and sympathetic. How many movies can you think of would leave you with an everlasting impact? How many movies manage to touch somewhere inside your soul?
Gump has braces in his legs in childhood. He can barely walk, let alone run. Yet, when some errant schoolmates chase him, he starts running for his life. Blessings in disguise perhaps.
His ability to run fast takes him places. He is chosen in the football team. So while on his quest for a touchdown, none from opposing team is able to catch up with him. He becomes an All-Star football player and gets to meet President John F. Kennedy.
Post graduation, he joins army and is posted in Vietnam. He manages to save several soldiers during an ambush. As a war hero, he meets President Richard Nixon. A curious Gump is a fast learner and becomes a world champion Ping-Pong player in no time and he’s hailed by President Nixon again.
During the days of his posting in Vietnam, while listening to the stories on shrimping business, he promises the fellow soldier to be his 50% business partner. The soldier dies in the war, but Gump keeps his promise. He becomes a successful shrimp-boat captain and a wealthy businessman. True and honest at his heart, he gives 50% of the profit to that soldier’s destitute family.
Gump, after all, is a shy Southern guy, in love with his childhood best friend. Despite all the successes in life, Gump yearns for the love of his life, who takes a quite different and much sadder path in life.
The movie belongs to Tom Hanks. There can never be a better contender for the Best Actor award than Hanks in Forrest Gump. IMHO, this is inarguably his best ever performance. Each of the above shades of Gump has been masterly portrayed by Hanks. It is Hanks who successfully takes you to the rollercoaster ride of emotions. Especially, when his mother passes away, when he is panicking looking for his fellow soldier in Vietnam, when he sees his childhood love in the middle of millions of anti-war protesters outside the White House and well in almost each frame, Hanks is marvelous. He makes you cry and he makes you laugh and you wouldn’t even realize that it is after all, a movie.
For the record, the movie won Academy awards in three categories – Best Movie, Best Actor and Best Director.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~
Now Consider This…
Despite physical and mental shortcomings, Gump manages to conquer due to perseverance and concentration. When he takes a task in hand, he gives it a lot more than 100%. Probably because he knows that he is not a normal person and therefore needs to walk that extra foot to be able to meet others. In that quest to walk that extra foot, he wins simply because others are indolent in their approach, considering their rival weak because of his apparent disability.
What does it show us? That because a person is disabled doesn’t mean his overall capabilities to compete and perform can be discounted. The movie teaches us many aspects of life that have been long forgotten in today’s money centric self-centered world. That love, honesty and ethics are probably more important and effective than shrewd unethical maneuvers. And in the end it’s always a victory of good over evil.
And My answer to the question in the title…
I think there is a Gump in all of us, and it is up to us whether to listen to him or not. What should we do when some people hurl vitriolic accusations at us? As long as the Gump in us knows that we are on the right path, it is better to ignore and stay course. He will jump out and tell us again and again, perseverance and concentration are more important and don’t let these obstruction come in your way. And believe it or not, most of the times he is right, think about it.