Tonight we watched a screening of Wrong Time Wrong Place. It is about the massacre on Utoya Island and the bombing in Oslo that happened in Norway in 2011. It was well done. Somehow the film found a way to walk a fine line. It recognized the untellable fear and horror but also the small spark of life that is emerging from the ashes of the survivors and those who love the dead.
Many of those in the documentary told of such small decisions that saved them and left others dead. And as I walked home, I thought of the millions of choices I make each day – most not even consciously considered.
I read stories about soldiers who gained fatalistic attitudes during wartime – coping with their fear by believing that you could not avoid the bullet that had your name on it. So, there was no point in being afraid – that bullet would come no matter your actions. The parents of one young victim argued this point – the mother thought that her daughter would have died when she was 20 regardless (if not on Utoya Island), the father thought this view was nonsense.
I like to think that I have my choice in any given circumstance, but what if my path was predestined? Would I live differently? Take more risks, do more things, eat more heavy cream?
May 7th 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Am I approaching a wrong time and place? Will I feel the different that day? Will I know?
