Thursday, December 15, 2005

Just as i was about to go to work, my itchy hands had to switch on the tv.

Being the last channel being watched last night, HBO appeared and guess wad... it was screening Big Fish.

One movie I havent yet watched - and i was so hooked onto the movie that i had to finished watching it before i head off for work.

Interestingly, it is a movie about how a boy who grew up distrusting his father (because he was missing for much of his childhood) and the stories (and adventures) that the father told him when he was young.

There was a particular scene whereby this grown up boy confronted his father who is seriously sick.

He said,
"Dad, do you know about the iceberg? You only see 10% of it, and the rest of it is hidden underwater. That is how i feel about you. When are you going to let me see the rest of you and be who you are? Be it a bad guy or a cruel guy.. anything, just be yourself for once."

And his father replied, all my life, i have played a role, that is being me and nothing else."

The grown up boy who is soon to be a father said, "I am soon to be a father, and if my child grows up not knowing me, i would be devastated. The stories you have told me, are good enough for 5-6 years old. Yes I believed in you before, I just hope that i haven't believed you that long. Now that I am all grown up, they are not enough anymore"

His father said, "If you have not understood me all these years, then it is your failing, not mine."

I guess it was particularly sad to hear this from your own flesh and blood, especially when you are sick and ridden on bed.

And guess what?

When the father finally passed away, all the fanciful characters he had ever heard in his childhood, people that his father has helped in his lifetime -without expecting anything in return - turned up for his last rites. It was a real turnout.

I wonder when we go pass on, would we have as many people turning up at our funeral to send us off? Would we live favourably in their memory?

That much i wonder . . .