Secret. Life.
This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
~ David Bowie, “Space Oddity” (1969)
If you haven’t enjoyed the delightful movie remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013, with Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig), rent it tonight. While I won’t describe the plot itself, the message of the movie is to let go of our small securities and run the risk of being amazed. This vast world of beauty and adventure invites us to live boldly. Broadly. Courageously.
And while the movie’s title is a reference to Walter’s inner fantasy world, there is at least “a” secret to abundant life embedded in this narrative. There is always one path for playing it safe… and another path into the largesse of the unknown. We make these choices every day, mostly in our subconscious. This subconscious we each carry about inside ourselves is shaped by many things, including our spiritual worldview.
I’m not talking about a theological or “biblical” worldview; that’s a topic for another day. Instead, I’m talking about the fundamental orientation we bring to the world—the glasses through which we see things and interpret ideas. I think if I lay it out in a chart, it will be easier to understand these two poles of perspective as they relate to one another.
Worldview A already has a name; it’s called Fundamentalism and it’s not attached to any one ideology. You can be a fundamentalist Christian or a fundamentalist Muslim; you can be a fundamentalist Republican or a fundamentalist Democrat. You can even bring your fundamentalism to something as simple as your opinions on wine or coffee. In fact, if you are a fundamentalist in one area of life, you bring that habit of perception—that worldview—to most of your ideas.
Worldview B doesn’t really have a name that I know of, so I will call it Unitivism because this view of the world looks for ways to include rather than exclude, because it priorities being together over being right. There is no lack of conviction in this worldview, but those convictions are held with an open hand instead of a closed fist. You can probably guess which worldview I would like to champion!
One will continue to fracture our world while the other could potentially heal it.
Our hero Walter Mitty experienced a “conversion” from Worldview A to Worldview B, and I suppose that’s why I love his story. His conversion is set within the context of working for LIFE Magazine when it was still a photojournalistic masterpiece in print, and its telling motto was this:
"To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”
Henry Luce, founder of LIFE, outlined his expansive vision for the new publication in 1936: To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things — machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see man's work — his paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to; the women that men love and many children; to see and take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed.
Luce’ breathtakingly grand vision was cut down to just this actual motto: To see life. To see the world. To see strange things. To see and be amazed. Not bad, but I appreciate the movie’s liberty in expanding it closer to the original heart of the matter.
finding our way home
Where do you find yourself in the story of your LIFE and its corresponding worldview? Do you identify more with play-it-safe-Walter or keep-exploring-Walter?
takeaway
Expand!