Blog 7 The smells in the Sistine Chapel

Last week, I watched a film called Good Will Hunting. The plot is simple while the lines have profound implications. One scene in the film is when the genius but self-abandoned boy is sent to the therapist. The boy does not want to work with the therapist, so he uses tricky words as contempt. Then the therapist pushes back at the boy to overcome his defense mechanisms. The following is my favourite lines.

So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written…But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites… But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy….And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap; watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help.

The words impress me so much because I see my own problem on the boy. And it seems to be a common problem among many youngsters. We learn from books, the Internet and other media. We appear to be knowledgeable and can easily spout our “splendid” ideas towards a topic such as art or war. However, few of us have ever experienced them on our own. When I know about this, I feel ashamed of myself for my thoughtless remarks in the past.

The therapist in the film taught me a lesson and I learned two things through it. One is to be cautious about our words. It is because people can never understand a situation thoroughly unless they experience it. The other one is to be willing to experience. Be willing to participate, to travel and to broaden the horizon and to form a critical perspective. I hope I can tell the smells in the Sistine Chapel one day.