Life Lessons That the Movie Collateral Beauty Teaches Us

Howard got depressed after the death of his daughter and as a result of this death, he adopted a new method of living that was entirely different from his lifestyle before his daughter’s death. He did things that were odd and peculiar but given his situation, it can be understood. I would give explanations to the whys and hows of some elements of the movie that I found interesting. I’m also going to relate it to the book NHB written by Juan Elegido

Firstly, talking about the behavioral change after the demise of his daughter, the topic that relates to this is 'The Unity of the Human Person”. His behavior change could be related to the fact that he was grieving. He was at a point where he lost one of the most important things to him (his daughter) and he was grieving and his way of grieving resulted in a divorce from his wife. His emotions were influencing his actions and that should not have been the case. He could have educated his emotion (affected them indirectly) or stepped back to be more aware of his emotion of grief. He was living life in a haze and was barely getting any sleep. If he had educated his emotion or embraced them he could have thought of all the good times he had with his daughter or the fact that she had a happy life and the love of both of her parents instead of holding on to the fact that she was dead. This particular chapter in the book in summary says that we can’t try to change our emotions but rather we should try to educate them (by affecting them indirectly) or by becoming aware of this emotion and finding out the reason we are feeling that emotion and try to change the main cause of that emotion. He was able to educate his emotions after joining the grief support groups and having various conversations with his wife and admitting to himself that his daughter was dead.

Secondly, the topic “Human Beings as Social Beings” could be related to Howard’s relationship with Death, Love, and Time. Human beings are naturally social beings, and this is because human beings are not just single individuals that fell out of the sky but people who grew up in a family, a community, and the environment. In the same way, Howard had a family and a daughter (a family) but he also had business partners with whom it seems he had a good relationship but as a result of the demise of his daughter he abandoned those relationships and embraced his grief. Howard was isolating himself because of the grief he was feeling, but he was also embracing his social nature by writing letters to Death, Time, and Love. After relating with these “things” in the form of people he felt pushed to join the support group for people with grief over dead children after thinking he might be bereavement hallucinations. The thought that he was going insane forced him to reach out to the only medium he knew that had helped others overcome their grief. This emotion of grief helped him to create new interpersonal relationships and put him back in a position where he could be relating to people again.

Thirdly, the topic “Human Fulfillment” can be related by looking at what type of fulfillment the co-workers were chasing. Howard’s co-workers were searching for fulfillment and they each had ways that they could each feel fulfilled. For Whit, his fulfillment would be found in reconciling with his daughter after his divorce. For Claire, it was having a child before it was too late biologically. For Simon, it was leaving enough money for his family in the eventuality of his death. But the majority of these wishes are only Extrinsic goods “things such as money, power, status, security, ease, and liberty (“freedom from”). As they are familiar enough we will not describe them further here, except to note that all of them come to us from outside”. Until they started to seek intrinsic goods in addition to the extrinsic goods they were seeking they didn't feel fulfilled. At the end of the movie, they had achieved their fulfillment in the form of happiness, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Lastly, the topic “The Rationality of Human Beings: Intelligence and Will” movie left us with a lot of unanswered questions that we had to interpret by ourselves, but truth tends to be subjective and can only be proved by the information that is provided; an example is a proof his co-workers (Whit, Claire, Simon) tried to fabricate by hiring people to make him seem mentally unstable to the knowledge of the shareholders’.

That video was created to serve as proof that Howard is mentally unstable and as far as the board of directors was concerned this was the truth. Things like this beg the question does Collateral Beauty exist? Is there any such thing as truth? Can the truth be proven? Were the people portrayed as Love, Death, and Time portrayed properly? But the movie did not provide answers to these questions. So I can only answer these questions based on my intelligence and what I can understand. I prefer to believe that you can only know the truth based on your intellect, experience, and beliefs. Our intelligence and our learning capacities sometimes determine our ability to know the truth.

In conclusion, Collateral Beauty and The Nature of Human Beings taught me a few lessons: emotions can be educated, and becoming aware of the emotion your feeling can help you overcome that emotion and learn valuable lessons; human beings are social beings and we majorly require interpersonal relationships with others; to be fulfilled we have to chase not only extrinsic goods that may be required to live but also intrinsic goods that help us feel fulfilled; truth can be manipulated and you can know the truth based on the information you are given. So to help others along and try to give them the full story.

I believe the movie is telling us that we should embrace all the elements of life like Death, Love, and Time because that is the only way you can appreciate the life we have been given.

Reference List

• Elegido, J. The Nature of Human Beings .
• Frankel, D. (Director). (2016 ). Collateral Beauty