Lessons from the Movie Stranger than Fiction, Live a life of quality

Quite by chance I was lucky enough to run across one of my favorite movies at a second hand store. Stranger Than Fiction is one of those movies that just works. Much like Groundhog Day this movie does not translate into conversation well, any attempt at explaining it seems to leave it sounding really ”off the wall” which couldn’t really be further from the truth. Stranger than fiction’s message is so down here, at times you’ll feel like you’ve been kicked in the nuts by the pure child-like sincerity of it all.

Ok this is not a Stranger than Fiction review though so for those who have not watched Stranger Than Fiction I thoroughly recommend finding a copy of it, I’ve tried very hard not to spoil the movie so I’ve steered clear of spoilers as far as possible so if you haven’t seen it keep reading I’m pretty sure this won’t ruin it for you when you do finally watch it.

What is Stranger than Fiction about?

So why the hell am I rambling on about this movie? Well Stranger than Fiction is an timely reminder to us all to be more present in our lives. The basic premise of the movie is that Harold Crick, an IRS auditor finds that his life is being narrated by an author ie. he is slap bang in the middle of a novel… (Didn’t I say it doesn’t translate well?) Worse still according to the narrator in a few days he’ll be dead. As a result he comes to face to face with miserable realities of his existence. In amongst all of this and completely unplanned he falls for Anna a headstrong woman who he is auditing.

Life’s worth more than Pancakes …

In Stranger than Fiction Harold is like a lot of us going about his life with everything pretty much figured out, he has a routine he’s neither miserable nor happy. He’s fallen into pseudo life where he is able to get through each day. There is no drama in his life no excitement and to a large extent any fire he once had is in its final death throes. For Harold the news of his impending death forces him to stare at his life in the mirror and realize that it is devoid of those things that would make it worth saving.

How many of us are like these characters in Stranger than Fiction , living lives devoid of happiness. Closing ourselves off from the world and opportunities in order to protect ourselves. Sadly most of us will not get a nice dramatized wake up call like Harold Crick. We will continue to ignore the passing years as we continue to pat ourselves on our backs for avoiding all the misery, all the while not realizing all we’ve done is trade possible misery for definite misery. The lesson to be taken from Stranger Than Fiction are simple ones but I think one the quotes that sum it up best is this one.

Dr. Jules Hilbert: Hell Harold, you could just eat nothing but pancakes if you wanted.
Harold Crick: What is wrong with you? Hey, I don’t want to eat nothing but pancakes, I want to live! I mean, who in their right mind in a choice between pancakes and living chooses pancakes?
Dr. Jules Hilbert: Harold, if you pause to think, you’d realize that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led… and, of course, the quality of the pancakes.

Lessons

In the grand scheme of things Stranger than Fiction posed me with these questions:

• Is your life filled with meaning?
• Does it transcend the trivialities and add to the Universe.
• Is it better than a pancake?

There are a number of other great lessons in the movie and some good natured fun poked at authors and professors. The big take home messages in Stranger than Fiction for me were simply:

• Live now you don’t have a narrator to tip you off on your impending demise live all of your life up
• Don’t put off the things you always wanted to do, Harold may never have learnt to play the guitar if not for his certain death. We all put of the things we want to do remember those things are our interest and probably passions keep putting them off and you may find your passion withering away
• Be grateful for the time you have. Time is not your master it is slot you’ve been given on the planet use it don’t let it use you
• If you’re content you’re probably not happy. We need to keep challenging ourselves when we’re comfortable we’ve closed the door on adventure

See Also:

• Lessons from Avatar: The Power of Vision
• Lessons from Battle Studies: Keep breaking the mould
• Lessons from Spam: Acceptance comes first

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