Worth...

The film I Heart Huckabees is called an “existential comedy”. Basically it is about a group of people who are all looking for the answer to the question of life worth and purpose when it all seems to be chaos and pain. The film pits two ideologies against one another. First, the idea that everything in the universe is connected, and that you need to find your specific connection to various people and circumstances in your past that that help you to find your true self. Happiness comes through the realization that no bad can really happen because it is all coming from you, through another, back to you. Worth comes through the realization that you are part of the fabric of the universe.

The other ideology is that everything is not connected, that we are all just accidents in space and time, and that the universe is chaos, and therefore the only way to find happiness is to try to escape life, either through desire or through feeling and thinking nothing. You realize you are worthless, but that is okay, have fun. Nihilism.

Both are ideologies are trying to find the answer to the same problem; bad things happen, what do you do about it?

In the space I have here, I can’t really get into the meat of the films question, suffice to say I think that both ideologies are way off. Both ideas are wrong because they do not have a God at the center who is in control of the universe he created. But an interesting question does pop up, related to these theories, and posed in the film.

How am I not myself? This may seem a bit… weird. I mean, after all on one level you are always yourself. You are you in body, in space at a certain time, all the time. But it is deeper than that. How am I conning everyone, including myself, about who I am and what I am worth?

I think this is a question worth asking. How are you telling yourself a lie so that you feel either important, or not important, which leads to a feeling of self pity, which is like importance? Why do you tell yourself, and sell to others, this lie?

It all comes down to worth. We feel that we must gain worth from other people, and that means either inspire pity, or inspire power and control over situations. It all comes down to finding purpose and worth in life from others. But therein lies the problem, because other people end up hurting us in some way, so we can never really find worth from them… essentially all life is pain and chaos, hence the questions that comprise the main part of the film!

This is where Christianity has the answer! Worth doesn’t come from people or circumstances, it comes from the God who made us, and has a purpose for us! Our worth in life comes not from getting praise from the people around us, but from God, who put us on this planet to help others come to know Him, and ultimately to praise Him for who He is!

So ask that question every once in a while. How am I not myself? or how am I not what God created me to be? And then try to be that authentic person.

By the by, the movie isn't great. Funny at times, but just really strange... hard to follow. Have to agree with Ebert on this one... check his review out for a more interesting discussion of the plot etc.