Last weekend I had my own little movie marathon. Everyone was gone from the apartment, I didn’t have any plans made, so I decided that the best thing I could do was take advantage of my Netflix account (which has been sorely underused). I won’t go over the entire list of movies I watched, but the last one was one of the better. A movie called TiMER, which I was sarcastically wondering if I would enjoy. I approached this movie with skepticism simply because it was in the “indie” genre. Independent movies can be hit or miss as to their quality, content, and overall likability, so I tend to stray away from them unless they have good reviews.
The premise of the movie is that scientists have found a way to predict when you will meet your soul mate by implanting a device in your arm. When both people have a device enabled, the timers will sync and give you a day in which you will meet. For some it happens soon, for others their soul mates are predicted to be many years in the future, and there are even some people who have yet to have their timer sync with someone, leaving them in a state of mystery regarding if they will ever meet this person.
The movie is clever because it toys with the traditional idea of dating, romance, and eventually love. It made me wonder what if the world was really this way? The conclusion I came to was that I don’t think I would enjoy a world in which I knew when I’d meet that person. First, I don’t necessarily believe there is just one person in this world that we are meant to be with, and that no one else could make us happy. I think love is a situation you discover yourself in, it is not something you know about until you wake up one day and realize that you need that one person in your life or things will be bleak and barren.
Although, I can say at times I would appreciate some type of clarity in the ways of my emotional life. The mystery of the situation is appealing, until it reaches that point when you know that you care, and they know they don’t. I guess that isn’t mystery anymore though, that is a realization of fact. The deal is, if a relationship doesn’t last, someone is going to get hurt. I’ve been in both situations before, though more often than not I am the one who is hurt. More than likely I will be again, but that is the way the world works. I think if you spend too much time pondering on these types of things you miss the most important part: the experience itself.
Being with someone is about enjoying them, about letting go of yourself just that little bit and accepting the fact that for just a little bit of time you can place your happiness in someone else. If you put a timer on something like that you will eventually hear the sound of the second hand ticking away toward the inevitable end. It’s like waking up before the alarm clock, which I did this morning, and knowing that in a few moments it is going to bring an end to the warmth you feel laying beside you. Ignore the ticking clock and enjoy.
This and more at Synaptic Thought.
