"Inconceivable!"

My uncle and I have been known to carry out entire conversations simply using quotes from The Princess Bride.  I may even be capable of acting out the entire film all by myself—monologues, dialogues, and all the action in between.  If it is not blatantly obvious, be advised it is my favorite movie!

One of the most poignant lines from the film is, “Life is pain, highness.  Anyone who says differently is selling something.”  I feel like this offers a tragically true insight into our society.  Just because the film has a reputation for being one of the most quotable comedies of all time does not mean that it cannot also promote deep thought.  Or perhaps that is just me seeing a real-world application in the random quotes I frequently toss about.

“Life is pain, highness.  Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.”

Even if life is difficult and full of pain, the media often promotes a different ideal.  Is this because that is their perception, or is it because they are trying to say that your life will be great if only you buy what they are pedaling?  The pharmaceutical industry is the epitome of selling something to take away life’s pain.  Prior to banning commercials and advertisements for alcohol and cigarettes, people were depicted as indulging in “the good life” so long as they had a touch of liquid courage or some smoky sex appeal.  Unfortunately, these marketing techniques play right into humanity’s weakness: a desire to escape life’s pain however possible.

While it is fairly common to seek to avoid life’s pain, I have developed a somewhat different perspective.  Perhaps, this is because life has handed me a little extra pain and I do not want to give myself over to the myriad of miracle pills being sold for the express purpose of mitigating life’s pain.  Therefore, instead of denying pain and shirking the reality of my life, I instead choose to acknowledge the terms of my injury and reality.  I try my best to face pain head on and cope with it productively.  On the days when things become tougher than usual to bear, I simple excuse my haggard appearance as a consequence of the fact that I have “been mostly dead all day.”

Conversing with my uncle in quotes from our favorite film.

“Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” “Well, who says life is fair?  Where is that written?” Regardless of these brutal realities, if you keep yourself open to the possibilities, life can also be full of “Fencing.  Fighting.  Torture.  Revenge.  Giants.  Monsters.  Chases.  Escapes.  True love.  Miracles.”  And yes, these are not all good things, but the lesson here as it was in The Princess Bride, is that good things in life come at the cost of pain.