CONTROL ME

There was a movie out in theatres a few years back that starred Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding. It was titled "INSTINCT", and the crazed character of Hopkins, a brilliant professor tainted by an experience with overseas research in the jungles of Africa, shed light on some things of which I had not previously been consciously aware. My favorite scene in the movie is when Gooding, the psychologist assigned to Hopkins' case, is forcefully held face-down on the table by his inmate client who remains shackled at the wrists. Hopkins asks his therapist repeatedly what he has lost? "WHAT HAVE YOU LOST?", he yells insistently. Gooding guesses cleverly, offering up power, choice, freedom, and control in answer to the impromptu quiz. Each time he is mistaken, his face is shoved violently against the table once again with a repeated, "NO! WHAT HAVE YOU LOST?" Finally, an idea seems to pass by Gooding's eyes as he cries out, "My illusions! I've lost my ILLUSIONS!" at which point he is immediatley released from the hold that Hopkins had on him physically. "Yes, you lost your illusions. Remember, even control is merely an illusion, boy."

What a powerful message - all is an illusion. Just as Solomon points out in the book of Ecclesiastes, all is vanity. It is all for show, all about appearances. We struggle to appear in control of our 'destiny' and our 'success'. When you really get down to it, what do we have? Our body? No, that is subject to injury, illness, and death. The body is actually very fragile. Our mind? No, also subject to attack and decay. Our life? No, that does not belong to us -nor did we make it - nor can we sustain it past the appointed time. Our time? No, for time is greatly fleeting and we fade quickly like the flowers of the field.

The truth is that we are nothing, and we have nothing that really belongs to us. Even our own lives are not our own. ALL CONTROL IS ILLUSION. We expend major amounts of energy attempting to control our environments, our relationships, our health, and how we spend our time. I must agree with Solomon categorically - it is all vanity.