I’ve followed the discussion surrounding Django Unchained and yesterday, read a Tavis Smiley interview that pretty much summed up my thinking about the movie: “I don’t know what’s inside Tarantino’s heart; what I do know is what’s inside his head, because that’s what we see on film. If what’s inside his head is connected to what’s inside his heart, then this brother needs some help.”
So what’s the real problem? It didn’t begin nor will it end or change with this or any other man’s work.
In other reading, of amazing dialogue (ironically not by Tarantino, though he’s been known to write great dialogue) I realized something about one of the speakers that changed my life. His side of the dialogue was really simple, and seemed to completely ignore the other speakers and continue on its own track. After rereading several times, I realized what was happening:
He only heard, only responded to, and only spoke the truth.
Can you imagine how hearing, responding to, and speaking the truth might be perceived in our everyday lives? Probably as anything but the truth.
This realization made me reevaluate not only how I communicate with others, but also what I was taking in and putting out: With every word, bite, move, song, movie, book, spirit and relationship.
It illuminated how harmful,apathetic, and stifling it is to accept and live with lies. Size doesn’t matter with lies. They all hide the truth.
Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death.
There is only one truth. And it’s good. Better than we could ever fathom. But it ain’t always pretty, easy, or fun, and for those reasons certainly isn’t popular.
In fact, because lying comes disguised as whatever feels and looks best, and is easiest, it tends to be way more popular than the truth.
Django Unchained is a very popular movie.
Beyond any person, or thing, the real problem is we don’t seem to want or even know the truth anymore. Not about women, men, ourselves, our thoughts, our families, friends, leaders, nation, world, environment, economy, history, work, music, art, movies, books, food, or dance.
Think about it.
When was the last time you, or anyone you know went an entire week, day, or even an hour without thinking, uttering, or believing something that wasn’t true? Mind you, anything that doesn’t fuel the most divine version of yourself and others is a lie, and that’s the truth.
The whole reason we exist is to know, live, speak and be the truth: That is our purpose. That’s what makes us powerful.
So why are we so caught up in, so fascinated by lies we’ll defend them and attack the truth?
To lie is to deceive.
To deceive is to ensnare.
A snare is a trapping device for birds or small animals.
We’re not only set above animals for physical, scientific reasons like opposing thumbs and intellectual or social capacity. We’re set apart spiritually, because of our capacity to know, not just learn about or understand, but to know and actually be love, healing, power, and change: Truth.
So why are we so caught up in, so fascinated by what’s trapped us, we’ll defend it and attack freedom? Why are we living with so much pain we can’t feel the clamp of a trap closing on us?
In the haze of discussion I’ve seen surrounding the film’s release, this troubling tendency is highlighted: The fact that we have redefined what a lie is to make it more palatable: Dressed and seasoned it up to mask the sight and taste of decay.
The new definition of a lie includes: Necessary, cathartic, entertaining, historic, raw, violent, long-awaited, powerful, beneficial to viewers, not that big a deal and…Honest.
Authentic.
We exhaust ourselves trying to believe that a lie is our comfy home instead of a trap for a small animal: Why shrink ourselves when we’re at the top of the food chain, made in the image of God? Are we that afraid to be great?
Who convinced us we aren’t authorized or qualified to stand firm in truth?This film is yet another addition to a canon of work that is in truth, a cry for help. We can call it whatever we want but the reality is, when a person does what Tarantino and many others have in their films: Showcase a crippling obsession with violence and perverted sense of love and of reality he is choosing to show his worst…
Is that also what he believes is his best?
The truth is simple.
It’s healing, it’s universal.
But when you’re so tangled up you’ve redefined lies as reality and chosen to glorify them, at the same time you say the truth is a lie and vilify it… You then have to painfully uncover the truth, root it out, and aggressively fight to find, protect and understand it.
Truth is the stolen love of our lives: abducted, abused, covered up and hidden.
If all of us focused everything we had on taking her back, instead of multiplying and adding layers to deception, what would be different?
We would truly be wise, understanding, knowing.
We would heal.
We would grow.
We would live.
We would love.
We would win.
We would be who we are meant to be…
Instead of poorly executing badly written characters in exploitative stories from which no good, no profit will come. Does life imitate art or does art reflect life? When you’re living a lie and hiding from the truth it doesn’t matter.
If we could see honestly, the transatlantic slave trade was one of the single most beautifully pure testament to the power of human love: That in spite of the darkest hatred and violence, we love, we grow, we heal. Tavis Smiley eloquently summarized this truth in his interview: “Look at all that black people have endured and gone through, and then look at the patriots we have become. That is the beauty of the black experience.”
Buy the truth and do not sell it; also wisdom and understanding.
Tina Watkins Quaye 