O Captain! My Captain!

In keeping with the theme floating about regarding life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness in consideration of Independence Day Weekend, these are my thoughts. When I think of the pursuit of happiness, I can't help but think of the phrase, Carpe diem! When I think of carpe diem (Seize the day), probably the best known phrase of Latin in the world, I think of one of my favorite movies, The Dead Poet's Society, in which Robin Williams plays an English teacher at an exclusive, all boys prep school during the late 1950's. Nearly 20 years later, it still stirs me.
Williams' character introduces the line, "O Captain! My Captain!" to his class from a Walt Whitman poem dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, whom some call "The Great Emancipator". This line sets up a pivotal theme in the movie. Besides encouraging them to appreciate the magic and power of poetry, learning to seize the day and to think for themselves seem to be the main lessons of the teacher, though there are several other very subtle lessons throughout the movie.
The first time I saw it, I only cried during the end scenes, but this last time, I found myself ready to cry from the beginning, because I knew all about what was going to happen. Boy, am I sensitive, but I doubt that I'm the only one who cries at movies to which I already know the ending. Or maybe I am. Either way, I'd do it again.
There is a strangely liberating feeling connected to doing what we want to do at the exact time we want to do it. Throwing our fears and inhibitions aside, if only for a moment, is an indescribable high. Feeling or knowing that we can't do what we want to do, when we want to do it makes us feel trapped, like an emotional incarceration, a low point with no way out.
Some of us work in jobs we hate. Some of us work with or for people we strongly dislike or don't respect. Some of us are in personal relationships that physically and/or emotionally drain and exhaust us. Some of us are living lives according to other people's plans for us. And maybe some of us are experiencing all of the above.
I've been in some of those situations, but for as bad as they were, I believe that it is only for having known that feeling that I can wholly pursue and truly appreciate my physical and emotional freedom. We might all agree that seizing the day is not always the easiest or most opportune thing to do in our lives. Often, it's down right difficult. Even so, it's likely better than the alternative of wondering what if or what might have been.
May God give us the courage to confront our fears and push them aside to carpe diem and finding and following our own way, even if that means sacrificing the plans or approval of others.