Thoughts on kindness

I was thinking about the Roosevelt quote above (below?) in connection with much of the media I partake of, in particular the Black Cat anime I have been watching recently with my husband. I enjoy battles and swordplay as much as the next gamer, but I usually need an underlying cause to really tap in to the emotion of the moment. The fight against evil, if you will, or even just self-preservation. And there is a time and place for such things in life (though we don't see much in the way of sword-swinging these days)--Lord of the Rings is a great example, as well as my Final Fantasy video games. There must be an overlying reason for becoming involved in a battle. I have not been one for violence, hate, revenge for its own sake (hence my lack of participation in World of Warcraft).

So, this Black Cat anime is all about assassins and bounty hunters. An entertaining enough story, but all about "getting" and "killing" others. It wears on one after a bit. That is what bothered me about the long-awaited for movie, "Wolverine" as well. I kinda liked it at the time (two hours with a buff Hugh Jackman, who wouldn't...well, that would be my husband and numerous other guy friends that don't find that the raison d'etre to see this movie)but something bothered me. I saw it again at home, but now I don't care to see it again. Yes, there was the need to save mutant children that would be experimented on, and then there was the revenge for the pseudo-death of the love interest. But, look--Wolverine is all about gory violence (just play his video game if you don't believe me!). He can do some great stuff with those knives that pop out of his hands like that, and his personality is such that he is willing to take things on at any cost. And he certainly does like to be tossed about. But I think some of those moments of kindness (that end in death) and peace (that end in ever-pursuing violence) and justice (requiring even more death and violence) were just stuck in there to get you on the Wolverine train, giving a point to all the massacre on the screen. This time it didn't work. I just couldn't stomach it.

Kindness? The meek shall inherit the earth. It takes more strength to stop in the face of it all and show love, show kindness (of course being able to take up the sword when necessary, but only then)...and most of the time hate and violence are NOT the answer (well, hate never is)...and think about the welfare of the other, what they need most to become their best self, to believe that they have a best self. Give them the chance to redeem themselves, to make a better choice. Spiderman 3showed a lot about forgiveness, making choices, allowing others to change, forgetting about your own thirst for revenge enough to show kindness and mercy to someone else. Hence there were a lot more tears in this flick than in Wolverine. Hmmm...something for us all to think about.