3 Powerful Lessons I Learnt From the Movie, Interstellar

Learning is a pastime for me. The joy of discovering something previously unknown to me helps me in ways I cannot begin to describe. But to put it in a nutshell, learning helps me fulfil purpose. It helps me help others close up their knowledge gaps because with what I learn, I teach. Last week, I finally saw the movie, Interstellar for the first time and the keen lesson for me was the nature of love. Someone might ask, what about the nature of love did you learn? Now the Bible, whether or not you are a Christian, presents an apt description of love in its nature, character and quantifiable dimensions. *I’ll leave the passage of the Bible you can refer to at the end of this post. But what about love did I learn from this movie? I learnt—actually relearnt, as you yourself would find out that it is a rediscovery—that love is the only phenomenon capable of transcending time and space. Love Transcends Death Last month, as with every other May since 1996, I remember my mum who passed away from pancreatic cancer. And like most children, I was pretty fond of my mum; her loving smile, her voice and the warmth of her personality that she brought into my life. The thing is, I still love her and miss her, even today. Death may have cut short the time and space we shared together but it couldn’t keep out love. We love people though they have passed away. It’s the power we wield when we eulogize the memory of a friend or a loved one. Love Trumps Time Old flames are easily rekindled because love trumps time. Not seeing someone you truly love for 20 years doesn’t make you stop loving them. In fact, many lovers, seeing each other after a passage of time, usually pick up as if there was no intermission. More strangely, is how quickly time passes and you don’t even realise it when you are with an old friend, or when you are doing an activity that you love.  And by the way, doing what you love is one of the biggest secrets of the uber rich in modern society. Scientists have proven that love can be quantified and harnessed into other energy forms including money. Love Triumphs Over Space “My blood, my blood … my blood,” I could hear myself cry. It was an out-of-the-blues moment that I would always remember for the rest of my life.  It was about 2 pm on June 13, 2002. Somehow, I had managed to board a bus from my school in Okija to that of my late brother in Nsukka not really pinpointing why in my head, except that I sensed something was awfully out of place. It was my first and only visit to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; our own equivalent of Harvard. I remembered the anxiety I felt all through my ride and the aloofness when I finally reached Nsukka. You see, my younger brother and I could have passed for identical twins so I wasn’t surprised when someone later told me how they thought I was his ghost. The lad had been shot at point blank range that day by an unknown assailant and only passed away at around the time I started screaming, “My blood, my blood … my blood” almost 30 kilometres away. Until now, I never did understand that love was the source of inner knowing. The same love makes a nursing mother hear her hungry child crying and begin lactating even if they aren’t in close proximity. Love is the greatest force on earth; it can help you reach anything, attain any goal…forgive anyone. It is quantifiable, transferable and convertible into nearly anything there is only the planet.   *Ephesians 3:14-19