“In seven days, God created the world. And in seven seconds, I shattered mine.”
This movie is renowned around for the world for being a real tearjerker. When friends are suggesting movies for movie night, there’s always one person who says “Let’s watch 7 Pounds!” Then everyone emphatically says no.
It’s a gloomy movie, and you’re not really quite sure if it has a happy ending or not.
If you haven’t watched it, my advice is do so, then come back here because we have a lot to talk about.
The ending is obviously shocking.
To give his life in order to try and save as many lives as he can, and the way he did it, took us all by surprise. From the moment it was revealed that he’s in fact Tim, you can tell something bleak was coming.
Tim spends the rest of his life trying to make amends for the mistake that he did. He tries to right the wrong he committed by committing equal but opposite actions to this wrongdoing.
He works to help those burdened with their taxes and to correct their bosses’ or caretakers’ misdoings. And then finally he gives his body, to change the lives of 7 people for the better.
Undoubtedly, no one could argue that what he did was anything but noble and honorable. And someone might say, that it’s possibly the best thing he could have done, after what he did in the beginning.
But was it really the best?
Tim dies, not only because he wanted to help the people he chose to help, but because he believed he didn’t deserve to live. He wanted to punish himself so bad, that he couldn’t bear the thought of living on, without having to pay some sort of price.
Tim knew that he couldn’t fix anything, and that no number of lives he saves, can undo what he did before.
Tim simply couldn’t live with his guilt, and that is frightening. He felt so guilty for being responsible for the deaths of others, that he wanted death for himself too. That can’t be good. That can’t be the answer.
Death, cannot be the answer to anything.
Guilt is a powerful agent that moves us and affects our actions and beliefs on a daily basis even if we don’t notice it. From our acts of charity to our subdued apologies to even our political and religious worldviews, guilt is very much a factor in all of them.
But it shouldn’t be. There’s a difference between being conscientious, to have a conscience, and being overwhelmed with guilt.
Guilt has to be just a launching point for a change in behavior for the better, but not as the drive and agent behind it.
To live with guilt, is no life at all. Guilt cannot be and should not be the way you live your life.
How you ask? How can I say this, with all the awful things we do day to day to those around us and maybe to ourselves? How can I say that we shouldn’t live with guilt?
Because we cannot be enslaving to it. We are humans, and as such, we should be meant for more than a life of guilt. And to turn things around in your life, to look yourself in the mirror and feel like you can be guilt free now, that requires more life! Not death!
It is so important to listen to our conscience, many atrocities against humanity could have been prevented. It’s also important to move ahead from that, and work to live guilt free. Not by silencing our conscience, but by finding a way to live a better life, and be better people.
Guilt should only be the alarm that tells you that you’re in the wrong path, so the answer shouldn’t be to stop walking. Change your direction and look for the right path. Don’t let guilt trap you and keep you from having a full life.
We all make mistakes, and we’re all responsible for them. So, we should live not only to rectify them, but to be the kind of persons who don’t make those mistakes anymore.