It's All About Mattering

I know that I've written about sacrifice before, but I think that today's topic screams for me to use part of that original blog entry.

What I'm talking about is the way I opened that post, with the quote by Spock, from Star Trek II. And the reason it has come up is because a character in the latest Transformers movie actually quotes it. The ironic part is that the character in the Transformers that speaks the line is voiced by Leonard Nimoy aka Spock.  But here's where it gets even more ironic.  The character, Sentinel, is talking about saving the Autobot race by destroying the human race in the process.  This is a complete opposite take of Spock's attitude in Star Trek.  It is Sentinel's belief that the needs of the Autobots and Decepticons to survive outweighs the human's right to survive.  This clouded judgement is what gets him in trouble, not only with the Autobots, but with the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, also.

But I'm not going to give away the ending.  Well, not unless you want me to.
As for the rest of the movie and the reason I titled this blog post as such, let me just say that I liked it.  Yes, there were a lot of explosions.  Yes, there was a pretty girl that runs and screams most of the time and doesn't do much else, although she did make a difference toward the end, surprisingly.  Yes, there was an unexpected bad guy.  But all of these are standard for summer blockbusters.  This is one of those movies that you don't think too hard about.

But these aren't the point either.  There is a scene in the movie where the main character, Sam, tells his girlfriend that he just wants to matter.  She tells him that "you matter to me."  But at that moment, Sam doesn't realize that that is all that he needs.  He's too busy trying to help save the world again without thinking about the girl that he loves.

Sam's desire to "matter" is something that we all feel.  We as human beings want to matter to someone or something that we work ourselves to near death just because we think it's required in order for someone else to take notice and remember us - to have a legacy that we can leave behind for the rest of the world to discover and enjoy.  But as his girlfriend, Carly, says, he mattered to her.  This is also something that all of us are looking for - to matter to someone special - to find the one true love of our lives if we can.  I know I did.

Even when it seems like all is lost, though, Sam is still determined to matter and do what it takes to stop the Decepticons from taking over the Earth.

Does Sam matter to the world?  Does he matter to his girlfriend?  Does he even matter to his parents?  The answer is yes to all three, but in order to find out how he matters, you'll have to see the movie.  I can recommend it as a movie that you sit back and enjoy some popcorn.  Don't think too hard about any of it or you might hurt your brain.


Until next time.