The Shawshank Redemption

AMC played “The Shawshank Redemption” four nights in a row this week. I watched it twice. And wished I had seen it the other times as well.

There is no finer movie about the power of hope floating around Basic Cable.  It’s a textbook example of how to behave when you are wronged.  Don’t whine. Don’t get mad.  Don’t get even.  Plot your escape and get ahead.  I sat there in my Bay St. Louis hotel room watching Andy Dufresne plan his escape and it occurred to me: The prison is a powerful metaphor for your mind when you get screwed over.  I’ve seen people who were and chose to stay behind the walls. They just quit — and allowed the person who did it to them to be like the warden and guards. They got beat down like the prisoner who whined “I don’t belong here” (and was beaten to death by the guards.)  And I’ve seen people who were like Brooks, who couldn’t survive outside of their misery even when offered their freedom.  But I’ve also known people like Andy Dufresne  who patiently plotted their escape. They played the game and then made their move. They got out of their prison and prospered. Viktor Frankl wrote a masterful book called “Man’s Search for Meaning” that touched on the Andy Dufresne ‘s of the Holocaust. The ones who thrived in the middle of Hell on Earth while others around them withered and died. The ones who found meaning. The ones who clung to hope.

Andy Dufresne is my hero.  As he told his friend Red, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

That’s good advice for a Monday morning.