Castaway

Have you ever seen the movie "Castaway" with Tom Hanks? If you haven't I would strongly encourage you to do so. In fact if you haven't seen it for quite some time, please watch it again after reading this post. I would love to know what you think and hear your answers to the questions I will pose in this post.

In the movie "Castaway" which many people felt was a huge FedEx commercial because Tom Hanks works for FedEx as an account executive that meets with clients for the benefit of saving every minute to make sure things are delivered on time. He carries the latest in today's technology which includes, a cell phone, a pager, watch and probably a planner or calendar but we are assuming it's built in to his phone. He travels a lot! More so than most people could imagine and while struggling to maintain a long term relationship with Helen Hunt who is busy working on her degree in college. Both are very driven people. Yet the one thing that is missing in both of their lives is time.

Probably what most of us want most of in the world. More time! Yet why do we want more of it? To do more things, whether its planning time with family, taking more vacations, volunteering more, getting more work done, and so the list is never ending. Yet God gives us all the same amount of time. So why can some people get more done than others in the same time frame?

It's the amount of stuff in our lives that gets in the way.

Let's strip it down to the basics we need to survive in life. If you found yourself deserted on an island with no one around, what would be the top three things you would need to survive?

For almost every single one of us, they would be food, water and shelter. Clothes will fall under shelter since it's a covering for us to protect us from our environment. Yet once those three things are met, enough food, water and clothing/shelter, what else do you really need?

What are you top three needs? Here are mine!

1. Someone to share the island with. I don't like being alone. I need companionship and I'd rather it be a person.

2. A Bible, since it provides the instruction I would require to keep myself happy with my basic needs being met.

3. A boat just in case the island gets to be a bit too cramped and a way to change the scenery. We all want the option out, don't we. When life gets too overwhelming we want space or a way out. Not necessarily permanent but a time out.

Back to the movie, now for more precise questions I would love to know your answers to besides the top three I just listed after the basics in life are met. In the movie, Tom Hanks finds himself lonely and in need of companionship so the only thing on the island that remotely comes close is Wilson! A volleyball that he creates a person from after an accident that causes him to cut his hand and in a rage, grabs the ball and tosses it from him. In his aftermath of anger, he looks at the ball and realizes it's a face and thus he creates a persona to talk to on the island and calls him Wilson.



Who would your Wilson be on your island?

Tom Hanks being the only survivor of the FedEx plane crash finds boxes of FedEx packages washed up on his island. At some point he stores them thinking he may be rescued soon, but then thinks the possibility isn't likely and begins to open them, hoping that they may help him in his island survival. He doesn't open on of the packages because it contains a pair of wings. In fact, he never opens that package and by the end of the movie actually delivers it to the owner. What is inside, we are never privy to. Why does he do this? What is the significance?

What would your FedEx package be in life?

After too many rainy days and nights trying to live under the shelter he has built on the shore, he manages to find a cave that he can stay inside to avoid the water and winds of the island. When he left his girlfriend on Christmas Eve, she provided him with a pocket watch with her picture inside, his favorite to keep her memory with him wherever he went in his travels. Now stuck in a cave, he begins to draw her picture on the cave wall. Over and over, he studies her image and paint and carves it onto the wall.

What is the picture you would carve on the wall of the cave?

And lastly, after struggling with waiting on the island for over 4 years, he finally decides that attempting an escape beats waiting to die on the island. After uncovering a washed up piece of a Port A Potty bathroom, he decides he can make a raft and use the piece of large plastic as a sail.

What is the sail in your own life?

Each of these four questions provides some insight on what is important in your life current and each of them leads to a very real question. Tomorrow, I will reveal what those insights are in my post Rescued From The Island. For now, share with me the answers to the questions I have posed:

1. Who is your Wilson?

2. What is your FedEx box?

3. What picture is on your cave wall?

4. What is your sail?

I look forward to hearing from you all soon. ~ Kat