A long, but interesting movie is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt as Benjamin. The premise of the movie - and the premise only - is based off of the short story by famed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald bearing the same title. In the movie, Benjamin is born toward the end of the first World War, not as a baby but as a crippled and elderly man. It is so apparent that something is wrong with the newborn that his father abandons him and he is raised by his “momma” - a kind lady who takes him in as her own son. It takes a few years but eventually Benjamin and his momma figure out that Benjamin is in fact aging… it just so happens that he is aging in reverse. Instead of getting older, he is actually getting younger. As viewers, we see Benjamin’s life in it’s entirety, from birth to death, through romance and heartache, through the good times and the tough. While a key thematic element is definitely love and romance, I would make the case that the stronger message throughout - from the very beginning until the very end - is the humanity we all share and which binds us together, regardless of how or where we were born.

In the movie, it doesn’t take long for the viewer to see that Benjamin understands that: life is going to happen. And from early on he learns to embrace the changes in his life rather than fear them. His body changes yearly, but not like everyone else he knows. He sees a great deal of change from early in life and is forced from the very beginning to live in several worlds simultaneously - one where death is commonplace, one full of racial discord but with racial harmony at home, one where he has the mind of a child but the body of an old man, and so forth. In short, he has to learn to embrace change. And he does. Somehow he figures out that, to live life to the fullest, constant change is something he will have to embrace. And that is how we see his life played out, with Benjamin embracing change and living life to the fullest because of it. In a letter to his daughter, he even tells her she can do anything she wants and start over any time she wants, as long as she is willing to try something different.

And it’s that theme of change that likely struck a cord with me the most. As is typical for the human race, changing my habits is difficult for me once I’m set in my ways. We are creatures of habit and products of our past successes and failures. I’ve seen more change in just the last few years than many people see in twenty years or more. Some of it has been change for the better and some of it for the worse, but it has kept me on my toes and from being too comfortable. My most recent change was a lengthy decision to resign from my full time job to finish an advanced degree. My hope that is stronger than my discomfort? That I will experience growth and continue with a life experience that I can carry with me for years to come.

The character in the movie doesn’t always make the right decisions. But he does seem to be at peace with change and we see him living out his life to the fullest and dying with some level of contentment that he embraced it fully and did the best he could with what he was given. (As a sidenote, the moviemakers are not attempting any religious, moral, or ethical statements one way or the other here so regardless of what you believe, the movie should be viewed for exactly what it is - simply a story about life.) My personal hope is to continue to embrace some level of change for as long as I have breath to breathe. Because although I won’t grow from all of the changes in my life, I will continue to grow from many of them. And anything or anyone that is growing is still living… to the best of its ability.