The Forrest Gump Syndrome

Like many others, I thoroughly enjoyed the Tom Hanks movie Forrest Gump, where he played a young, slightly retarded Alabama man who led a charmed life through adversity (and history) while maintaining his values and vitality. The character of Forrest Gump was himself a larger-than-life, somewhat surreal character that I had a bit of difficulty relating to when I first saw the movie. But I could certainly identify with many of the assorted people that he ran across along his life's journey. After all, as a rule they were clueless about what they were doing, but went about their business acting as if they really had it all together.

As time went on, though, I began to identify less with those people and more with Gump. And this is why: Forrest Gump lived completely in the present. He did not allow himself to be encumbered by past offenses and did not harbor grudges against others. His life's narrative, as he related it to whoever would listen to him as he sat on a bench waiting for a bus, was not designed with any personal agenda in mind. When something hit him as a good thing to do, he went at it with all of his heart. And thus he succeeded in many things that others failed in because of discouragement and distraction. But there is something else that causes me to identify more with Forrest Gump.

Forrest Gump was a very aboveboard, everything-is-on-the-table kind of human being. And when dealing with others, that's the way I at least envision myself as becoming (eventually). But I recognize (as Gump didn't), that there are multiple layers of subtlety and deviousness in interpersonal relations. I simply don't want to get involved in that (while Gump simply couldn't recognize it). It's because I tend to avoid dipping down to a certain level with others that I often feel that they regard me with a condescension that resembles how Gump was treated. And do you know what? That's all right with me! I don't want to be like so many others, who live their lives out in a cloud of fear regarding their "place" within their assorted social circles and feel empowerment whenever they are privy to gossip or some underground connection. Not that I think that life is so rosy: I tend at times to be quite cynical about things. And I can dwell on my past life with misgivings (I'm very good at that). But I still see the future (for me) as focusing more on "here and now" and not "there and then". And that puts me right in line with Gump. Call it the Forrest Gump Syndrome. Or simply call it sanity.