“Our lives are not our own.”

I finally saw Cloud Atlas (with Halle Berry and Tom Hanks) the other day, and was so struck by the classic, epic nature of the story that I ended up taking notes.

The key characters, who were all tied together in stories that went back and forth from their past lives to future ones, said some profound things – key concepts that embody the human experience, and, to me, seem to reveal the moral behind the stories we call life.

We first heard, “There’s a natural order that must be protected at any cost,” while turn of the century white aristocracy walked through the fields where black slaves labored all day. They comforted themselves with the thought that the slaves “didn’t feel the heat like civilized folk.”

This “natural order” idea was also used to destroy the life of a brilliant, gay musician, who ended up taking his life.  The man-made "natural order" made slaves of some, while exalting others over them throughout the past and future. 

 The only hope I could see in escaping that cycle seems to have apocalyptic implications.  Toward the end of the movie, the natural order of Tom Hanks' primitive life was destroyed by painted barbarians,  After his family was murdered and his home destroyed, he went off with a futuristic Halle Berry -- where they lived happily ever after, telling stories to their grand kids. Still, escaping corruption and destruction is not the same as healing the world and the souls that are intertwined in our lives in hidden ways.

Concept #1: “There is a natural order that must be protected.”

Without order, there can be no peace. So, order must be protected. Unfortunately, this order has always been protected by corrupt humans -- people who focus on their position of authority, while ignoring their unity with those less fortunate than themselves.

This class struggle was identified in great detail in the movie, even using quotes from Solzhenitsyn.

However, for me, the powerful quote was the one that recurred on several occasions in the various scenes from the past, present and future, where people’s rights were ignored and abused. At these times, a key character would always say: “I will not be subjected to criminal abuse.”

The central plot involved an oriental slave woman, who worked 18 hours a day. That phrase, which she discovered in an old movie, became the seed thought for the wisdom she espoused throughout the movie, until she was executed at the end. (Spoiler, sorry.)

Concept #2: The natural order, after getting corrupted by humans, leads to the marginalizing of much of the population and the compromising of human dignity, to put it mildly. In fact, many die because of the selfish goals of the elite. Seeing this, those in power rationalize that the death and intolerable conditions of the underclass must be part of the “natural order.”

Some, like our brilliant musician, will even take their own life because of the unbearable situation they find themselves in as a result of the corrupted values of their civilization. However, others will stand up and threaten the elite by pointing out their “criminal abuse.”  

This gives us hope for change. However, in reviewing this movie and world history, the most any individual has ever done is to inspire hope. This corruption of the elite, which disenfranchises the masses in order to maintain their own position, ties all the characters in the story together with karma that continues long after all the individuals pass on, bringing us to the last major precept.

Concept #3: “Our lives are not our own. From the womb to the tomb, we are bound to others, past, present and future.”

We each have control over our own lives, but only to a point.
While discovery of those limits may be disheartening for who are dismayed, it's also is the realization that holds the power to perfect our creator's natural order on earth!

IF the elite, who try so hard to isolate themselves from the rest of us, realized that their past and future is connected to how they treat others in their current life, they may try a little harder to relate to the plight of the common man.

The world could meet it’s end waiting for that miracle. Still, unless we can fly off like Tom Hanks did with Halle Berry, it is our only hope.