Life of Pi

** Warning: This post contains a mild spoiler. If you haven't read the book yet and plan to, you might wanna skip this posting. --Miss Kate**

I recently finished reading Life of Pi, on loan to me from my sweet friends in Brooklyn. Early in the story, a friend of Pi tells us that "this story will make you believe in God." I was dubious of that claim when I read it, since I'm fundamentally skeptical of any such notion. One of the questions for group discussion at the end of the book asks,"Did Pi's tale alter your belief in God?" My answer is a simple, "No." What Pi's tale did for me was make me think about the power of forgiveness. Specifically, about the power of forgiving oneself for being strong.

In order for Pi to survive, he had to do many, many things that he never wanted to do. But he did them and became good at doing them. His reluctance to do those things wasn't out of laziness or squeamishness -- he didn't want to do those things because he felt the pain that those actions would bring to others. But he survived because he did those things. The question is, how can one survive while acting in ways that are completely at odds with the ideal that one has established for herself? Pi did it by telling his story. He says, "The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?"

Pi tells two stories, one full with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena, and a tiger. That story contains all of the pieces that allow him to forgive himself for surviving when others did not survive. At the request of two investigators, he tells another story and he describes the story before he tells it. He tells the men, "You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently..." After he gives the men that story, all of them agree that the first story with the animals is the better one.

Survival is not for the weak because it is brutal.

I hope to learn to tell my story in ways that allow me to be compassionate with myself for surviving and that help me forgive myself for not meeting my ideals during every trial. Every minute is a new chance that I can make it and reach for my ideals again. Writing helps.

Here's to those stories that help us see higher and further and differently. Be well, R.P.