'Defending Your Life'

This morning I was walking on the beach where my Uncle Jimmy once rented his fishing boats. I still feel our childhood footprints there and conjure up a vision of Old Sag Harbor. Even though I stood in the shadow of the new condos, I felt grateful that some of that property is now preserved as a park. 

There along the edge of the water was a plastic water bottle which had drifted ashore. We hear about tons of plastics dumped into the oceans-the harm it is causing to sea life and our planet-and I pondered, for just a millisecond-do I pick it up? We have become so ultra-conscious of germs, especially during this pandemic.  When walking on the ocean beaches we have often found mylar balloons and plastic waste which we collect and carry up to the receptacles. For some strange reason this simple act of mindfulness reminded me of the 1991 movie, “Defending Your Life”, written, directed and starring Albert Brooks with Meryl Streep as his co-star.

Movies can impact our lives and the way we live. I am constantly followed by the concept introduced in this film-very simply stated-Albert Brook’s character dies in a car accident and finds himself in a purgatory like place-he is being judged as to whether he proceeds to heaven or has to return to earth to try again. He has to defend his choices in life based on video tape snippets of his actions throughout his lifetime-how he dealt with fear-the choices he made. 

 I recalled the movie when I spotted that water bottle. I had to decide whether or not to pick it up and put it in a place where it would cause no harm to sea life. Of course, I did and found a handy trash bin. I wonder though if one day we won’t be defending our own lives, the choices we have made, the mylar balloons we may have left of the beach, the jar of tomato sauce that went into the trash rather than the recycling bin-the times that we neglect letting someone back out of their parking space-spitefulness, revenge, meanness, stinginess. And of course, among our shortcomings hopefully there will be clips of our acts of goodness, generosity, kindness, humility. What will our video tapes show of how we have decided to live our lives?

 There is no perfect person-we all have skeletons (video tapes) in our closet-times we faced our own humanity, times we may not have done our best. My mom used to say it is always better to be kind than to be right. And my brother-in-law came into town from New Orleans with the expression, “it doesn’t cost two cents to be nice to someone.” And yet it seems that we are living in an often tense and challenging world. What is creating such change? Are we all packed together too tightly? Is it difficult at times for us to take the high road?

Life is fluid and always moving. Each each day gives us an opportunity to begin again. Many of you probably have stellar video footage-for me I’ll keep checking the tape.