Ok, so I finally rented The Hunger Games and watched it this week, with equal amounts of fascination and horror. I was fascinated with the amount of creative endeavor that went into the writing of the book and then the masterpiece of a movie. I was horrified with what was expected of those 24 young people!
Throughout my viewing, my heart was deeply touched in many places and after it was over I realized that the main character Katniss was on a journey of survival, and I too have been on that same journey, my journey with cancer.
If any of you are not familiar with the story, the basic premise is this: in a futuristic society/country, once a year, each of 12 districts is required to send two young people (1 female, 1 male) to participate in “The Hunger Games” which is broadcast live throughout their land, much like our Olympic Games. The 24 participants are drawn by lottery. The grand prize for the winner is LIFE. That’s right, in order to win The Hunger Games, one of those young people has to survive the longest. Which means, all the others have to die in order for the one person to win. It’s the ultimate reality show. Similar to American Idol, but instead of contestants getting eliminated, they are killed, by one another.
I didn’t see an analogy to my own cancer journey until the very end when the two victors (yes, they bent the rules so that two could win instead of one) are heading home. One of them, Peeta, says sadly, “So what do we do now?”
“Go home and forget, I suppose,” replies Katniss.
“I don’t want to forget,” he says with conviction, looking back over the passing landscape.
That is how I felt when I was nearing the end of my cancer treatments a year ago. I didn’t want to forget the lessons I had learned along the way. I felt Peeta’s conviction to not forget what had happened to him/them during their fight for survival.
As I said before, that was the very end of the film, and it makes me curious to know what Peeta will do with that conviction to “not forget” in the sequel.
Stay tuned… next week I’ll be posting another blog entry about more connections I sensed/noticed between The Hunger Games and the Cancer Journeys I’ve been on.
I agree. Last year I honored each of my chemo treatments by posting a picture on FB of me with my id-bracelet & make a small comment. This year, going through an unrelated dark period, I am trying to remember that brave, hopeful girl. The lessons were huge and not ment to be forgotten.