Worth Watching: Vincent and The Doctor

Doctor Who is a sci-fi show that has a little something in store for everyone. It has adventure, sci-fi, memorable characters, compelling plot, and sometimes, reminders of things we tend to forget as we carry on in our day-to-day lives.

A good friend had me watch Episode 10 of Season 5, arming me with these lines -- "Have tissues ready."

My daily pocket pack of tissues could not contain all my feelings, or the tears shed in this episode.

No, no one dies. Well, yes, someone actually does, but it's a meaningful death, and its not the actual point of the episode. Everyone dies, but sometimes, seeming-villains are scared too, when they die.

I want to focus on the main idea in this episode, and this is something I shared with another good friend.

We're all imperfect people.

There will be times when we feel weak. Hopeless. Worthless. An embarrassment to society or our families. There will be times when we feel our life's work is garbage or mediocre, no matter how hard we try. .

The Universe might not need you in its encompassing enormity and  wondrous complexity. You might be merely a speck to it. But --

 The Universe is also in you, and you are wonderful and complex and bigger in more ways than your body can define you. You are part of this majestic and infinite Cosmos, and in some ways of thinking about it, it manifests itself through you.

You're You, your're Here, Right Now.

And this is just me, but to me, this is the most empowering life lesson I've ever learned in a long, long time.

Whenever I feel down and terrible, this episode never fails to pick me up again and set me straight.

Let me share the biggest turning point of this episode with you. Have tissues ready. Enjoy.

"Is it not enough to believe a garden is beautiful without believing faries live at the bottom of it too?" -Douglas Adams

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Bertrand Russell on Clarity of Thought

  I should like to say two things, one intellectual and one moral. The intellectual thing I should want to say is this: When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed. But look only, and solely, at what are the facts. That is the intellectual thing that I should wish to say.

The moral thing I should wish to say to them is very simple.  I should say love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world which is getting more closely and closely interconnected we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like.

We can only live together in that way and if we are to live together and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.