To be clear, this is a problem I have with a lot of movies, and not just the more recent ones. Last year, while recovering from a broken shoulder and wrist, I was watching some old western on the Turner Classic Movie channel. One of the characters took a bullet in the shoulder. He was asked by his companions if he was okay and said, “Oh yeah, just a little shoulder wound.” Then he climbed on his horse and rode off to resume his previous activities of shooting, fistfights, romance, etc., as I sat there with my right arm immobilized, shouting at the television, “You have GOT to be kidding me!”

For all of the positives I can see in Fight Club, its contribution to the ongoing, longstanding message we’re given in movie after movie that men’s bodies are virtually indestructible receptacles for physical punishment is a major weakness, and one that has become more and more problematic for me after multiple viewings.

I have really enjoyed Fight Club and although it is a little extreme, it really speaks to my inner Wild Man. I find that American Beauty does that as well – in perhaps a somewhat more gentle fashion – and look forward to publishing my review of it sometime this month.

Your experience sounds beautiful. Thank you for sharing it.

I especially liked the points you made about:

1) the error of trying to take the “spiritual bypass” path to enlightenment, which is so very common, and
2) the problematic issue of needing to feel “special.”

One of the most sublimely liberating moments I’ve ever known in my life occurred a few years ago when I was walking at night, looked up at the sky and stars, and realized just how insignificant I was in the great scheme and mass of everything that is, was, and ever will be. Suddenly, I felt free in a way that I never had before, and that moment has stayed with me ever since. Every so often, I manage to drop back into the place in myself that was opened up by that experience, and it is the most peaceful place I know.