Why do we fall?
It is no secret, atleast to the people around me that I am a big Batman fan, but it wasn’t always like this. Growing up as a child I loved watching the Batman TV Series starring Adam West, while also being simultaneously terrified of the character due to the dark & noir nature of Batman: The Animated Series. Over the years though, Batman has grown on me having read the comics and watched the movies. Personally, my most favorite adaption of the caped crusader on the big screen would be 2008’s The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan. To me it is the best comic book movie adaptation of all time. Perhaps that explains why I’ve watched it probably close to a 100 times or more, I’ve lost count to be honest. A close favorite would have to be 2005’s Batman Begins which set the ball rolling for movies to come. Although I don’t think it gets as much love as it should, it’s nonetheless a movie I love a close second to TDK.
This post isn’t meant to be a review of Batman Begins, there are tons of literary pieces written by some of the most profilic critiques of the modern era. Rather, this post is meant to share with you my takeaway from it. It’s something that registered in my mind as I watched it the first time. Something that I’m constantly reminded of with each re-run of the movie on cable TV or streaming platforms. Early in the movie we witness a young Bruce Wayne fall down a dry well, injuring himself. As his father Thomas Wayne makes his way and gets Bruce out of the well he asks him a very poignant question, which he answers himself soon enough.
Thomas Wayne: And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
That is a strong statement at a time when a father could have just pacified his son in any other way or means such as caressing the wound, or telling him it wasn’t his fault or by distracting him; trying to draw attention away from the incident. Parents especially in India often take the more drastic approach, asking their children to slap or hit back at the cause of their fall or hurt. And kids do as they are told. Often times parents do it themselves just to pacify the child by hitting or tapping the object, as a means to invoke a sense of having taken ‘revenge’. And I find that disturbing. It’s the way generations have been raised here that we choose not to teach a child an invaluable lesson that would build character or maybe we don’t think that children are capable of understanding, that at times they will get hurt & it’s okay. The same dialogue is seen playing out towards the end of the movie by Alfred Pennyworth, to the now grown up Bruce Wayne.
Alfred Pennyworth: Why do we fall sir? So we might learn to pick ourselves up.
Bruce Wayne: You still haven’t given up on me?
Alfred Pennyworth: Never.
This is such a powerful piece of writing as there is so much to take away from it. Each time I fall, each time I commit a mistake, I shouldn’t hate myself for it. While the sense of having faltered can get overwhelming, leaving very little scope for taking out any positives; but sooner or later I realize that I’ve always learned something. This will to go on, no matter how many obstacles come up is what drives the achievers. Focussing on our goals, rather then what impedes us. There will be times when you fall & when you look around, there will be no one to help you get back on your feet. When people you expect to rush towards you with help will be too busy to even notice that you’ve fallen. When there will be someone jeering & mocking you & you will want to stay down, afraid of getting up only to fall again as you approach your goals in life.
These are the times when you need to remember the simplest & most powerful lesson from a fall.
Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
It’s how we learned to walk as a child & it’s exactly the way that we have to walk ahead in life, as obstacles come our way. As this post comes to an end, I’d like to leave you with another quote that I hope serves as motivation in times when you fall.
Supposing you have tried and failed again and again. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down. ~ Mary Pickford
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