The Human Experience

Last night, I watched one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen.

The Human Experience is an incredible film following two brothers and some friends in search of finding meaning in their lives through having different experiences and perspectives. One of their main premises is that you are unable to understand someone's situation until you take the time to understand. To live it. To be it.

A film asking the ever challenging question: What does it mean to be human?

Their experiences take them to different parts of the world: NYC, Peru, and Ghana, and they encounter people from so many different walks of life. Many of their experiences involve interactions with survivors - homeless, abandoned children, lepers - many of whom simply try to make it from each day of the next. What do they have to live for? What is their purpose? What makes them wake up in the morning?

One of the biggest things I took away from the stories shared in the film is how special life is. Having suffered from depression, there were several times in my life where I was unable to see this, and I still find myself searching for my own purpose. Through these stories, you are reminded of a more primitive purpose that many of us forget - that every day and every life is special, and as long as there is life, there is a life worth living. So many of the people featured have nothing - no home, no families, many with diseases or deformities, and have been all but thrust out of society - yet they believe that every day they wake up, they have a purpose.

So many times, we get so caught up in ourselves that we lose sight of each other. We get so bogged down in the day-to-day and the here-and-now that we forget the bigger picture. No life is more valuable than anyone else's. There is no better or worse, only different. We are all connected in some way. We all a story to tell. Once we remember that, the question then becomes

do you take the time to listen?

Trailer for The Human Experience

Go watch the movie now.