I recommend that you view the film Regarding Henry first before reading this blogpost. Available from the Western library system HERE.
Thinking about “Limit” Experiences and Situations
of many “jaded” people used to more glitzy films. I consider it though a good chance to reflect on the concept of “limit” and “limit situations/experiences.” “Limit” is a major key for understanding and reflecting about the most important questions of human life and existence, particularly, how these relate with God, spirituality, and religion.
According to theologian David Tracy,
a “limit situation” refers “to those human situations wherein a human being
ineluctably finds manifest a certain ultimate limit or horizon to his or her
existence.” Tracy distinguishes two main kinds of existential situations:
“Either those ‘boundary’ situations of guilt, anxiety, sickness and the
recognition of death as one's own destiny, or those situations called 'ecstatic
experiences'... intense joy, love, reassurance, creation.” (David Tracy, Blessed
Rage for Order, p. 105).
Let me explain “limit” in my words (with my students
in mind). A “limit experience or situation” can be described as an intense
moment when something major (either positive or negative)—be it an event, an
overwhelmingly magnificent or evil person, extraordinary beauty or ugliness, a
serious crisis or extraordinarily beautiful moment, or the like—so powerfully
discloses the limits of human beings to understand the mysteriousness of human
existence. It forces us who experience this event as “a limit” to nevertheless
make at least some sense of this event’s mysteriousness that transcends
the ordinary limits of human understanding. How to do that? By
attempting to do an interpretation of the experience (“interpretive
understanding”). That’s just a fancy way to say: When faced with a limit
situation, humans try to put forward a possible explanation of the event. Of
course, it is obvious that the effort to make sense of limit experiences often
takes place in the midst of many strong positive or negative emotions, such as
hope, faith, love, anxiety, sadness, anger, fear, despair, etc., elicited by these
powerful experiences.
The Limit Situation in Regarding
Henry
Let’s go back to Regarding Henry. First point for consideration: At the beginning of the film, we see that New York lawyer Henry Turner is at the top of his game. He is a tremendously successful lawyer who “has everything” in terms of worldly success. At this point, recall that in order to reach such success in one’s career, Henry has had to work and study hard, hone his rhetorical and reasoning skills, have the right connections, and pursue everything with drive and perseverance. Being successful in life (such as having a successful career) is itself an impressive feat that could not be reached without much discipline and sacrifice. Being university students, most of you are in that “struggling” stage now.
But Henry’s life and success are obliterated in a single moment because of a seemingly random and senseless shooting that almost kills him and tragically reduces him to the state of a helpless person who has lost even the most basic of human capabilities such as walking or speaking, let alone reading or writing. This is the story’s BIG limit experience and situation. How can a whole life of hard work culminating in great success be gone in a few seconds? Such tragic experiences make us come face to face with our limits to comprehend life’s utter mysteriousness. Henry himself as well as his family and colleagues think of the whole situation as a tragedy. But is it really? (see the Zen story below)
How do you evaluate this tragedy in terms of the Hero’s Journey? How would you apply the Hero’s Journey to the whole life-journey of Henry presented in this film? Reflect on those questions and be prepared to give meaningful responses.
The Change that Happens in Henry: Before & After the Limit Situation
In the course of becoming a successful lawyer, Henry’s humanity and ethical values (we understand this little by little as we go on watching the film) became severely compromised: He prosecuted without adequately considering the ethical rightness or wrongness of the causes he was arguing for; he didn’t value his family as much as he should have; he had an extramarital affair going which affected the people he loved; he didn’t have any concern for poor and marginalized people. In short, he was becoming a sort of villain in his life journey.
But being reduced to a helpless state sort of wiped his slate clean. All the former bad ethical habits he had as a “successful” lawyer were gone. Being humbled by the experience, he became a decent human being who: had a high ethical sense, was connected with the joys of life (symbolized by the puppy), re-learned how to be deeply in love with his wife and caring to his daughter, began to lose interest in worldly success but focused instead on human connection. The post-shooting Henry now had time for the little significant things in life that make it so much richer. It is all summarized in the words that the Turner family’s housekeeper tells him after his recovery, “I like you better now, Mr. Turner.”
“Limit Situations” and the Spiritual
Quest/Hero’s Journey
How do we react to such limit situations/experiences, particularly, negative ones? Most of us are hoping that life would go on smoothly or “good enough” for us. But real life is not so. If it isn’t already, life definitely becomes tough and hard. What can we do in order to survive and also flourish in the midst of the many setbacks and tragedies of life?
This is something that we have to prepare for in order to not be completely blindsided by the difficulties and even tragedies of life which will inevitably come. We have to be in possession of some [take note of this!] “Inner Resources” (there is a whole field called Inner Resources Development). An important part of this is becoming aware of and developing our “inner strengths.” Becoming knowledgeable and proficient in identifying the “Hero’s Journey” and the different archetypes that are in it, is another valuable skill for understanding ourselves, others, life in general and the world in which we live, in a deeper way. Educator Carol S. Pearson calls this last skill "Archetypal Narrative Intelligence."
Acquiring the above-mentioned skills has been the major objective of this course on Spiritual Quests and Popular Culture. Popular culture is frequently just thoughtlessly “consumed” for entertainment’s sake. This course tried to offer a way to appreciate popular culture in a deeper way by focusing on these main topics: [1] The Hero’s Journey; [2] The Different Archetypes; [3] How those are related to our life-long spiritual quests; [4] The nature of Spirituality both within and outside organized religion; [5] The Western Spiritual Tradition (Christianity) and how that has influenced popular culture. If we have acquired a little bit more knowledge and application skills regarding those main topics of this course, we will be better able to draw valuable life lessons from the pieces of popular culture that we love.
I hope that the lessons you have learned in this course don’t end here but are brought back into your own lives. May they serve you well in years to come.
***
[A story that speaks deeply to
the theme of tragedy we saw in Regarding Henry]
The Zen-Daoist Tale about the Farmer and Good-Luck/Bad-Luck
This is one of my favourite Zen stories. It tells us that what we perceive as “good luck” or “bad luck” is not often accurate because many things in life can be understood only with the passage of time and when put in the bigger context of a greater reality. This story sheds more light on the message of the film Regarding Henry.
(This version found in the public domain at: https://blog.mindfulness.com/meditation/are-these-bad-times-or-good-times-the-story-of-the-zen-farmer )
There once was an old Zen
farmer. Every day, the farmer used his horse to help work his fields and keep
his farm healthy.
But one day, the horse ran away.
All the villagers came by and said, “We're so sorry to hear this. This is such
bad luck.”
But the farmer responded, “Bad luck. Good luck. Who knows?”
The villagers were confused but
decided to ignore him. A few weeks went by and then one afternoon, while the
farmer was working outside, he looked up and saw his horse running toward him.
But the horse was not alone. The horse was returning to him with a whole herd
of horses. So now the farmer had 10 horses to help work his fields.
All the villagers came by to
congratulate the farmer and said, “Wow! This is such good luck!”
But the farmer responded, “Good luck. Bad luck. Who knows?
A few weeks later, the farmer's
son came over to visit and help his father work on the farm. While trying to
tame one of the horses, the farmer’s son fell and broke his leg.
The villagers came by to
commiserate and said, “How awful. This is such bad luck.”
Just as he did the first time, the farmer responded, “Bad luck. Good luck. Who knows?”
A month later, the farmer’s son
was still recovering. He wasn’t able to walk or do any manual labor to help his
father around the farm.
A regiment of the army came
marching through town conscripting every able-bodied young man to join them.
When the regiment came to the farmer’s house and saw the young boy's broken
leg, they marched past and left him where he lay.
Of course, all the villagers
came by and said, “Amazing! This is such good luck. You're so fortunate.”
And you know the farmer’s
response by now…
“Good luck. Bad luck. Who knows?”
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