Fragile Strength: The Freedom-seeking People in "Broken Keys" (Part 1)

"Freedom", the word kept wrapping around. For some people, freedom means being able to do what they want, expressing their opinions, and choosing how to shape their life; for some people, freedom is just no longer being bound by illness, not having to worry about it all day long. Trapped in bed and able to walk on his own feet. For some, however: freedom is simply an escape from death in the present moment. Pray not to die from the cruelty, gunfire, and cannonballs in front of you. Don't just die like this.

So what are you after? Freedom is wider than we think. Freedom is like the sea in front of you, sprinkled from above, reflecting the dazzling sun. Sometimes obscured by darkness, slapped incessantly in far-flung places, overflowing from the shore, until darkness overwhelms the world. The storm has come. What we seek reflects who we are. However, the "freedom" we imagine in our minds yearns for the light, and may also lurk the freedom of darkness, which is closer to our true appearance than the self we know and know.

Goals and Freedom: Will 'self' become a hindrance to you?

The movie "Broken Keys" tells the story of a person who needs to constantly change his choices and continue his life and pursuit under the changing environment. The story takes place in Syria, where the civil war is still under fire. Government forces, revolutionaries, terrorists and many other forces are constantly fighting on this land, hoping to shape the country into its ideal appearance. The protagonist Kailin is just a civilian living in a small town run by terrorists. Terrorist organizations rule here with strict rules, shooting anyone who violates their rules at will; even if they are not attacked, ordinary residents are often affected by shells and battles, living in the breath of fear and death.

At the beginning of the story, the terrorists used a rifle to smash Kaylin's only remaining spiritual sustenance - the piano and music. This became the last straw, and Kaylin immediately decided to flee and leave Syria. So, he decided not to play anymore, and after finding parts to repair the piano, he sold it to prepare for his departure.

Freedom has a price.

The same sentence, uttered from the mouths of different people, gives people completely different feelings. When terrorists say this, they are forcing others to pay the price to participate and accomplish what they want to achieve. However, this is only their own ideal, their own "freedom"; what if other people's ideals are different from theirs? They intend to deprive others of freedom and choice to accomplish what they want to accomplish. Therefore, they never need to change, they don't need to change their established ideas, and they are forever trapped in their own established plans, established goals, and their own established stupidity. Since they want to deprive others of their freedom, they must also destroy their own freedom. Because no one lives alone; those who use violence to transform others are only living in an illusion that they have conceived and called "self."

However, if the other person who said this sentence is a person who also suffers innocently and lives with the fragility of others and his own fragility, then this sentence is no longer empty talk. This person only longs for the freedom to shape their own life, but does not intend to impose their own ideas on others; instead, they are more sympathetic to the fragility of others, and from fragility grows the fruit of compassion and action. Then, such words arouse people's reflection and empathy. "Broken Keys" in a ruined urban area, picks up a musical instrument store manager raised by an orphan; a woman who decides to pick up a rifle for the right to survive and openly act; with hope, always rebuilding from destruction after destruction The grandfather of the grocery store is like this.

The grandfather was killed by terrorists, so Kaylin finally gave up his plan to leave; he stayed and resisted to the end. However, this does not mean that people in suffering do not have the right to leave their locality and find a new life; nor does it mean that it is wrong to choose to leave and choose to live their own lives. This is just telling us that there is a place for others in our lives, a space is always reserved, even when the goals and ideals we have set for ourselves have all been destroyed by external circumstances, we are still with others, and we still have to Responsibility and Hope for Action. This is where we differ from the perpetrators.

 The next article is to be continued, and I am working hard to write it~