Alfie is seventy-two-years old and decides to leave his wife of forty years, and have a good time. He meets a twenty-something call girl, and dates her. So why not a Ferrari instead of a call girl? you may ask, well, Anthony Hopkins who plays the character Alfie, in the movie,You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, says, “Everyone makes mistakes in life and this guy made a big mistake. It cost him his marriage and probably his life. Fear rules so many of our lives, and in our lives we try to accumulate and gather as much as we can because at the back of our mind,the end is in sight.”
(If you wish to listen to the interview, please click the link)
Furthermore, Hopkins states the moral of, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, the latest Woody Allen film is probably,”Carpe diem.”
Anthony Hopkins says, “We live and then we die, so what’s the big deal. Don’t analyze it. I gave up trying to figure it out years ago.” He then quotes a riddle from Yeats and interprets as, “Don’t try to find meaning in life, because you won’t. There may be a meaning, and there may not be one, none of us know, it’s all a mystery, and it’s all a dream.”
I find wisdom in his words, and a sense of relief, that sometimes, when life becomes overwhelming, we create problems that have not yet occurred, and may never happen, so why do we waste time worrying?
Another story taken from Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, during his commencement address at Stanford University in 2005, also ties in with what Anthony Hopkins says. Jobs talks about death, since doctors initially told him he had three to six months left to live. This changed the way he thought about his life.
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
I hope you’re already living the life you love to the fullest. I know some people are struggling, however, we need to stop letting different kinds of fear rule our lives.
Have you found what you love?
