Have you ever wonder how it fills to be isolated in an island alone, very far from the place that you have grown for three years? Maybe for some of us, it is only alright provided there are gadgets, books and other things that can make us busy through those years.

            I am sure that all of us knew the famous line from Robinson Crusoe: “No man is an island”, meaning we cannot just simply live by ourselves. In the motion picture Cast Away, I have had realized something that is I think very visibly true but most of the time being ignored, and that will be the truth that we can live by ourselves.

            Before the plane crushed, Tom Hanks, who was the main character in the movie was engaged in a fright service. He was indeed a very busy man. He shouts at his people for them to work efficiently. Even though it was Christmas season, he still chose to work, until the accident happened, he lost everything.

            The first thing Tom Hanks did, finding his self in island, is to shout out “Hello” because he was a stranger to such milieu; probably he thinks that there might be inhabitants there. However, upon searching the whole island, he had proven that there is no one there.

            His survival in the island is not that easy because he had to find food, build his own shelter for him to be protected from the terrible climate, having many wounds in his attempt to escape the island and the worst of all is that he has nothing to talk with.

            As he was walking around the shore, he is still very hopeful that someone might see him, so he wrote a big text: HELP, but nothing happens. He had collected many boxes from the his plane brought about by the current, and luckily one of them contained his “soon to be” most precious friend in his entire stay in the island, a ball used for volleyball, and as we all knew, he named that ball Wilson. He shared most of his achievements and failures to Wilson, to augment and cope up the absence of a companion. In these scenarios, I have realized many things. Like for one instance that man is totally a social being. He must interact to his fellow human being. Without this, I think that life will be unbearable for him. It is true that sometime, we must be alone, in a solitude place for us to think or to reflect, but it does not mean that we can live in such a state forever. Upon experiencing such a scenario, the protagonist had many regrets. Regrets that totally changed his life to the fullest. The persons including his fiancée that he always ignored and put little importance made him realized that life would be very burdensome without her in his life. I have to admit that relationships are truly important in one’s life. In the seminary where we are being formed to be future leaders of the Church, we are trained to have that sense of “Community life” because as a priest, we must be flexible to cope up with the people that we will be with upon the different communities that we are living in.

            Man, as a creation of God is not superior to all creation if he is living solely because he cannot do everything without the help of others. That is why in the movie, the protagonist even though he have all the power and the resources in the island still chose to have a companion for him to share all his thoughts. Even I myself, when I achieved something or if I failed I need someone to talk to, even if there’s none, I would resort to talking to myself or even to the pictures I have in my room.

            In the song “Pananagutan”, St Paul says that we cannot live and die for our own selves because all of us have the commitment to live with others. We cannot simply be like animals that  can survive as long as there are sufficient habitats or enough food. In one of my meditation upon the gospel, I have had a realization that the most aching and truly scourging to our Lord Jesus Christ is not the passion but loosing someone.

            As a generalization, we have to admit that we are indeed social beings. We must mot bound ourselves in solitude. Indeed that for sometime we have to be alone, but it does not necessarily means that we can live happily in the absence of our fellow human beings. When Tom Hanks had the opportunity to be in his place again, he is very thankful that he had returned not because of the material things, not also by the honor given to him or the chance to be with his former fiancée either but in the reality that he is now in place and the community where he belongs.

           

By: Romeo Q. Locson Jr. | Barangay Secretary to the Sangguniang Brgy. of Camachile