The Adjustment Bureau - Part II

It seems to me that if we desire attachments and we do, then we must acknowledge that with all attachment comes pain. Neither ourselves, nor anything outside ourselves is permanent, all is in a state of flux and to demand that the object (person or thing) of our desire remain static and unchanging so that we are not threatened or anxious about the fact that they may no longer care for us in the future or are distracted by another person or thing is to remain in an illusion about life. Everything changes. To live is to experience pain, longing, failure, loss, anxiety, rejection, disappointment, disease, death and decay. Nothing can really provide lasting happiness - not success, joy, accomplishments, recognition, love or admiration and attempting to make things stands still so that our happiness (fleeting as it is) can continue, is one of the greatest sources of unhappiness. Instead of attempting to nail down the source of our happiness, which often involves clinging to the object of our desire, we might remain mindful that by entering into attachments we must accept that pain is part of the package. Attempting to rid oneself of pain often causes more anguish, when instead, if one acknowledges and embraces the pain for what it is, an ultimate consequence of life, then it can more readily be absorbed into the psyche. Pushing away pain and replacing it with fantasy or illusions about one's life only causes misery and so we enter into a downward spiral, into a deep and heavy mire that drags us further into its soggy depths. This notion, that love conquers all, one of the messages in The Adjustment Bureau, appears trite since David's 'love' for Elise is based on one fleeting event in which they meet and kiss, and sexual attraction, for as much as it is intense and desired has been shown to be unsustainable in the long term. Indeed the film adequately reveals that instead of providing happiness, David's pursuit of Elise and what she represents for him - freedom to express your true self, becomes a source of anxiety and discontent for him, for with existential freedom comes responsibility. But more than this, finding ones own truth and being awake in a world, which remains asleep to the underlying reality that pain is a real consequence of life and must be incorporated as ipso facto that life IS life. That we torment ourselves over lost love is tragic, but human. We appear sometimes like the marathon runner who puts themselves through hours and hours of pain for mere seconds of adulation. But unlike the marathon runner we do not figure hard work, pain and suffering in the event and so become fraught and fearful, holding onto a past that no longer exists and a self that is mere phantom. Often too, one lost love is replaced by another who must step into the remaining void and yet if that void was recognized as essential to and part of self then life may be more bearable. I enjoyed The Adjustment Bureau because it encouraged me to think beyond the 106 minutes of its viewing. It made me think about mindful action and the consequences and responsibility we have when we act or enter into a relationship with another, be that acquaintance, friend or lover. Outside forces over which we have no control must be balanced along with intentions and behavior over which we have control and so, The Fates - the spinner, the threader and she who cuts the thread of life, or, the Goddesses of things that were, that are, or that will be, can rest assured that our lives can be turned over to ourselves.