[8Uxtkz7F]

ok, this thread is coming from the perspective of a young man, me, who is trying to figure out his way in this upside down world. i heard something the other day that really made me think, and it turns out that it is really going to help me grow in the future. for every young man, and women too, has to figure out who and how they want to be in this world.

i figured if it helped me so much it would probably help someone else out too.

the other day, i saw a japanese movie that had a lot of deep wisdom about the reality of crime and violence in babylon type streets. this was not a movie that glamorizes drugs and violence, like we hear so much of in music today, but one that shows what it really does to people. the depression, emotional destitution and torture that people suffer.

one of the characters is a hardened yakuzi lieutenant who is coming to the end of his rope. he is very wise despite his profession and, in this particular scene, he is giving some wisdom to his young protege, who is about to to do the very thing that he trained his protege to do so well. execute him. the protege was crying and did not want to do it because his mentor, the lieutenant, was like a father to him. the lieutenant comforted him and gave him his last words of wisdom. the end of the dialogue goes like this:

it is ok, young one, you must do now what i trained you to do so well. i knew it was coming and i am ready to die. but let me tell you one thing first. love is the most important thing. the problem with love is that the deeper you love the more pain you feel. don't be like me and close off the love from coming in. i was scared. i lost both my mother and father when i was very young, and i told myself i would never feel that pain again. but i regret this now. in my old age, i now wish i had had the courage to open my heart again. and to love again. all the fights and mean, terrible things i have done are cowardly in the face of opening your heart. be courageous, and love deeply. now, after you are done with me, go home and love your wife and children. the protege then said, "yes sir" and pulled the trigger. he then went home and got his wife and packed up his car and began to leave the city. as he was leaving he was also shot.

so, this is very powerful to me as a young man because i want to act with courage. i don't want to be a wimp. but this society looks at love as girl's stuff, wimpy stuff. so you can see the predicament a young man would be in. but that is not true for me anymore.

the path of greatest courage is the road to opening your heart.

because with the greatest love you are risking the greatest pain.