get busy livin' or get busy dyin'

The title of this blog comes from my favorite movie, Shawshank Redemption. I highly recommend you see it if you haven't had the opportunity to do so yet.

Perhaps one reason why I like this movie so much is because of Andy Dufresne's (the main character) demeanor and life attitude. Despite the series of unfortunate events that seemingly destroy his life on the outside, he continues to flourish within.

At one point in the movie Andy gets thrown into solitary confinement for playing opera music on the prison facilities' public announcement system. This stunt lands him in "the hole" for two weeks, more time than anyone had ever heard of someone serving. Upon coming out of "the hole" his friends ask him what the time was like, to which Andy responds "easiest time I’ve ever served, I had Mozart to keep me company." His friends immediately enquire if he had a record player and Andy responds "no, what's in here (pointing to his head) and in here (pointing to his heart) they can't ever take away."

Andy is continuously dealt a bad hand of cards throughout the first half of the movie. For example, his wife has an affair, she then wants to divorce, she is then murdered, he is tried and convicted of her murder, and to round things out he is repeatedly beaten and raped. Despite all of this, Andy maintains his quiet and subdued mannerisms and flourishes within.

The day before the big event (don't want to give it away if you haven't seen it) Andy tells his best friend "either get busy livin' or get busy dyin'." I don't think Andy was talking about dying or living in the sense we typically think of. He meant something much deeper. We either get busy living by using our minds and developing our intellectual powers, and finding beauty that only a keen mind is capable of comprehending or don't and slowly diminish and wither away.

Our ambient doesn't have to hold us back and keep us from "livin", but I think it so often does in our lives. The movie is a great reminder of the responsibility we have to ourselves to rise to our potential by freeing ourselves of our circumstances, no matter what they are. Not important if they be incarceration and physical abuse (such as it was with Andy) or anything else that we might face ourselves. Our minds shouldn't be subject to our flesh or any other external factors, yet our minds should influence our flesh and overcome any unjust external factors that bind us. It is then at this point that we are freed and we find salvation that lies within ourselves. Then and only then do the inherent external injustices of the world that incarcerate each one of us no longer affect our lives.

Some of the following lines typify what I am speaking of:

“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

Andy Dufresne: That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you... Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
Red: I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn't make much sense in here.
Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy Dufresne: Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.
Red: What're you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.