Institutionalised

I looked out the Cafe window today through the grills on the windows. It was originally built as a bank so the windows are narrow with reinforced glass with protective cages over them.

'Shawshank Redemption' is largely voted as the most popular movie ever in most internet polls. One of the themes of the movie is how long term prison inmates get 'institutionalised', or unable to adapt to life on the outside. One of the most moving parts of the film is when a long term inmate called Brookes gets released from prison. he is set free. However, he is so used to prison life that the whole idea terrifies him. On the 'inside' (of the prison) he has learned to be somebody. On the 'outside' he is a nobody. [spoiler alert!] He cannot cope. He takes his own life. The original film soundtrack to these tragic scenes is a moving and powerful piece of music score called "Brookes was here".

Many of us think that we are trapped. That the one thing we think we want is freedom. Freedom from poverty, freedom from loneliness, freedom from a relationship, freedom from a job, freedom from unemployment, freedom from all kinds of prisons. However, the truth is that often, deep down, that freedom scares us. We don't like having real freedom. We don't know what to do with it. We prefer boundaries.

Freedom. Not always the easy option. To be really free takes courage, resolve and faith. The end of the movie makes this message clear. Perhaps that's why its so popular; it articulates something true about us all...