Disagreements Prove How Unique We All Are

I believe that movies are an opportunity to suspend our notions about the world around us and to indulge ourselves in the ideal, the impossible, the romanticized. Movies grant us this wish so well. But there are exceptional movies that fail to do this; instead, they represent harsh realities, depict life with all its smears and tears and scabs. And often this is all it takes for a good movie to be an extraordinary one.

We can disagree about many things–whether or not the girl and the boy should have ended up together at the end, on how the story should have played out, how the main conflict should have been handled, even how a particular actor or actress portrays a character. And it is a good thing that we disagree about these things. If we did not, that means we would be the same exact person with the same exact experiences and uncontrollable feelings and deep-seated beliefs. We would live in the same house, have the same friends, wear the same clothes, and listen to the same music. And this is simply not the case with any two people in the world.

Before every experience, even something like watching a movie, we all bring different things to the table–different biases, preconceived notions about certain ideals and traditions, and more. And after the experience, we take different things with us. They may be the same things we arrived carrying, but different from each other nonetheless. I may believe that the guy and the girl should have worked it out. You may believe that it was simply not meant to be. These are disagreements that show how varied the people around us can be, how different we are.

These disagreements are not bad. In fact, they are welcome. They make life fuller, richer, more colorful. They bring levels of understanding, create layers of meaning, mold varying shapes of the truth–many different truths, all of which are as true as the next simply because we believe in them, we nurture them, we cultivate them.

And in disagreeing, we do the same thing – we learn, we play, we make mistakes. We understand one another. And is that not a markedly beautiful thing in the first place? Like how disparate and discordant sounds come together seamlessly to create a harmony.

In these disagreements, we see each other fully, glaringly. Those who cannot, who do not–they live in far less meaningful movies than those who seek to understand these disagreements. And in even less substantive films than those who, in understanding, grow to appreciate and love and be grateful for these disagreements that make the movies we absolutely love our shared favorites.

I like to watch movies. So I am thankful for these disagreements, and I seek to understand them, to cherish them. For what they bring make my life a lot richer, more colorful, and worth living in.