Every Little Thing....

Its funny how every little thing can matter sometimes. I saw the movie "Garden State" for the first time this past weekend. I believe the movie is a commentary on life and modern day society cleverly wrapped in a dark "dramady". In any case, there is a point when the main character played by Zach Braff (who also wrote and directed the movie and stars on what happens to be my favorite show right now..."Scrubs") mentions how he ended up accidently paralyzing his mother from the waist down. Essentially, it inivolves a push from the 9 year old boy and a little tiny plastic latch on a dishwasher. The little latch was defective so the dishwaher door lay open that day. The mother fell backward and hit the back of her head on the open dishwasher door paralyzing her from the waist down. He goes on later in teh film to say something to the effect of "Its amazing how much of my life was determined by the little latch on thd door". If you see the movie you'll know that he means his life since age 9-10 or so had been grossly effected by the results of his mother being paralyzed and his subsequent psychiatric treatment including drugs that have left him "numb" to the current day. In any case, it is strange to think something seemingly so insignificant as a frustrated little push as a 9 year old combined with a faulty latch on a dishwasher could alther 2 people's lives so profoundly.

So I thought everyday how may seemingly little things have to go a certain way in order for everything to take place they way it eventually does. It just reminds us that all of us are subject to things beyond both our attention and control. These things can be little but have huge consequences that aren't always obvious. While it is humbling, it does teach us to think things through more while at the same time be aware we cannot think of everything, yet reminds us still to pay more attention to details. Kind of a mixed message but the in the end details are important and they often determine life - which as the movie points out might not be ideal and what you thought it'd be, but it is all that we have so that we should live it and cherish it. I think it is sort of a semi-obvious but important message because we can all forget these things sometimes.