“What a chance, what a surprise! My will has chosen life”
This film came out in 1993, the year I got married. I was 23 years old. I remember specifically the theater I saw this movie at. I went to a matinee with a friend of mine. I remember being deeply touched by this movie and in the 25 years since the movie came out I will play back one of the last scenes over in my head from time to time. The part where Ada deliberately puts her foot inside the rope that is going overboard with her piano. In that instant she is choosing death as she deliberately places her foot in the middle of the coiled rope that is quickly running out as the piano plunges deeper into the ocean. She believes she would rather be in the depths of the quiet ocean with only her piano than to live. However she surprises herself when she slips off her shoe to rise to the surface for breath, for life!
How many times have I also fantasized about plunging into the depths of the quiet beautiful under water world? Where in the water I can do things I can’t do on land, in the water that is a peaceful meditation to this otherwise noisy, crowded sometimes crazy world. How many times have I placed my head under the water of the bathtub just to listen the underwater noises, my heart beat, the blood rushing through my veins? How many times have I walked to the back yard and fell into the pool just so I could float on top of the water and again listen to the world in an entirely different way? It’s peaceful. It’s quiet. It’s liberating. WATER.
WATER. We need it to live. Half our bodies are water. A baby is surrounded by fluid while developing in the mothers womb. 71% of the Earth’s surface is water. I was made for water. I feel at total peace while in water or being near water. This is why this particular scene of this movie touched me and has never left my memory after all these years. To sink into the depths if only for a moment. I would like to think my will would also choose life if given the choice.
