I don’t think this a spoiler except that my vision may adjust how you see the movie (and I LOVED the movie). The below I wrote a couple days after my first viewing.
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“It was a song of all the promises I failed to keep… and it told me I don’t really want to go home.”
I don’t know if that’s what Homer intended (or Nolan’s adaptation). I don’t even know if that’s what Odysseus meant… But it made me pause.
We spend so much of our lives chasing what we think we’re supposed to chase. Promotions. Titles. Success. More money. More responsibility. Another goal. Another season. Another hill to run.
Sometimes those things are worth chasing… Sometimes they aren’t.
Sometimes the very thing we’re sacrificing to protect is the thing we’re sacrificing away.
I wonder how many people wake up one day and realize they “won.” The business grew. The promotion came. The bills got paid. The championship was won. The mission they set out on was accomplished.
But somewhere along the way…
…their marriage disappeared.
…their kids grew up.
…their health declined.
…their joy vanished.
…the person they used to be became someone they barely recognize.
They didn’t make one terrible decision. They made a thousand good decisions… that all pointed in the same direction.
Maybe that’s the real danger. Not choosing evil. Choosing something good for so long that it quietly takes everything else.
Every path costs something. Jordan Peterson, “there’s a price to pay in everything you do and/or don’t do.” You don't get to choose not to pay a price; you only get to choose which price you pay. The awareness of that is heavy.
Some sacrifices are necessary. Some are proper. But every once in a while we should stop and ask ourselves…
If I keep walking this road for another ten years… what version of me gets home?
I think that’s the line. Not “Am I successful?” Not “Am I winning?” But…
“What version of me gets home?”