Get Busy

Last week I got on the treadmill, as I am wont to do,

turned on the TV and there was The Shawshank Redemption waiting for me,

which is kind of wonderful, because The Shawshank Redemption is, like, almost a perfect movie, with profound thoughts and crystal-clear writing and quiet performances and heartbreakingly beautiful music, and Morgan Freeman’s enveloping voice...and a dream.

Two hours later, I was 750 calories lighter, drenched with sweat and tears, and newly inspired – I highly recommend it. It’s a movie about hope and patience and the ability to envision beauty and the possible. It’s a movie about friendship and loyalty and tag-team survival. It’s a movie about never settling in to what simply isn’t enough. It’s a movie about not letting your routines become so routine that you stop, literally stop dead in your tracks, making dreams no longer possible and joy a fading memory. The take away, the all consuming moment is wrapped up in a quote by the main character Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins. It speaks to our current hollow times; our post-COVID, lonely landscape; our group malaise. It’s a thought, simply put, that’s worth pondering and then deciding which path to choose, for yourself, no one else. And the quote is this –

“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

– Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, in The Shawshank Redemption