REMEMBER AND TRUTH

     Read the following slowly and think, digest, for it is not easy reading as far as understanding our own selves, what we remember and our truths.
     Heard about a movie called Remember, starring Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer and as usual, Lake Worth theater was the one to show it, as it does most of the Jewish and/or Israeli themed movies. I thank them for that.
     Anyway, I knew this had something to do with a final task, liked the stars, and so off we went - to a beautifully redone theater with cushy comfortable seats and even some normal previews! The movie concerned a final task of a lifetime, devised by two elderly residents of a senior residence, one who could barely breathe but was the brains of the plot and the other a man in the throes of mid stage dementia who had just lost his wife. Both had evidently been in Auschwitz and suffered from the same Blochfuehrer who killed their families and off went Christopher Plummer - Zev - to finally get this man and give him his due justice.
     Suffice it to say that you should see the movie and I will not tell you any more of its contents, only that you will be rapt within the movie and its actions, shocked and troubled at some things and rooting for a man to be able to fulfill this final task of his life, all the while his son is looking for his missing father.
     The connection to the Holocaust is important, but perhaps even more so is the stress on truth. What do we do when we cannot recognize the truth? How do we gain knowledge of it and then what do we do with that truth? How do we reconcile it with the "truth" that we thought we knew. What does it tell us about ourselves? Do we even want to face the true truth or do we wish to remain ignorant of it and continue on with our lives? And again, what does that say about us?
     To remember the truth is to remember something different than what actually happened. Ask three different people involved what happened and one will get three different stories, for truth and the past are remembered always colored by the wash of personal needs and stresses. That does not make it wrong, only what it is and what we have to work with. Do the exact details of the truth have to exactly mesh or can they be melded together in a working fashion which presents us with what we need to know?
     I believe that even what we remember tells us much of the truth about ourselves. I can remember certain moments from my past which I wish I had done differently, which greatly affected me, and when I speak with someone whom I believe was also greatly affected - they have no memory of it! Go figure! Or my siblings can look at each other as one retells a story of the family and three of us are clueless - though we supposedly were there too! Go figure again!
     So how does one KNOW the truth? How does one KNOW what to use as a basis for life? I have no idea other than to hope that when we all remember, that we accept that there is a truth hidden under that remembrance and we must evaluate that truth for what it tells us about ourselves and even about others and the respective motivations. It must tell us why we are acting as we do, why we have made certain decisions and why we hang with those we choose to make our social companions or leaders, for better or worse.
     I like movies. I like their escapism, the action movies. I hate the dumb comedy ones that are seemingly always aimed at sophomoric teenage boys in the bodies of adult men, who never grew up - and doesn't that tell us something of a truth! I like reading, but we all must remember that the arts were not put here to only amuse us but also to teach us, to force us to examine our inner selves, to find the truth, live with it, deal with it, and accept it even as we learn to act on that truth. A difficult truth to accept and a difficult task.
     In the fall a movie called Sylvia - Tracing Blood will be released, a documentary about an amazing woman. I am sure it will be in the theater of Lake Worth and perhaps even in the standard ones, but one line in particular struck me. Sylvia remarked, when asked about her burial  choice, answered, 'I wish to be buried in the soil of my soul." Would that we are all able to make that statement and know that which is the soil of our soul and that our soul has lived a good and truthful life and to remember - would be a good thing.
     And if you think that you, as an individual, have nothing to remember, no truth of your life to examine, think again, for we all do - about our past lives, our present lives, about the friends we choose, about our actions and the words we use, about our desire for justice, for the virtues of the Superman of old, or how we have strayed from the idealistic kid we were and how we have sold our souls. Choose what fits you and work from there.
     There is a saying and a concept in Hebrew that goes like this. "Ha'maven yavin." The one who understands, understands - that which is written and that which is implied. Are you that maven and what will you do with your newfound evaluation and knowledge of the truth? What will you remember and what do you want others to remember about you and your truth?