Make a decision

Yesterday, I watched The Equalizer 2.

Denzel Washington was great in it.

But the movie itself? It was just alright — a straightforward storyline with a somewhat unrealistic feel-good ending.

It lacked the thrill you would expect from a typical Washington movie. No matter how much they tried to conceal the antagonist, after a few scenes, you could quickly tell who it was. The guys at Rotten Tomatoes, who gave it a 51% approval rating, knew what they were doing.

I know it was released a while ago, but I couldn’t care less that I’m late to the party. What I care about, though, is a scene, midway through the movie, where Washington tells off a black teenager who was considering getting involved in gang violence to revenge his brother’s murder.

In this scene, Washington’s performance was nothing short of what we’ve come to expect from him, but his words were even more memorable than his act.

“Man ain't spelled g-u-n, son.” Washington’s character said, “You got a choice. You got talent. You got a chance, and I don't want to hear about your environment, what your momma didn’t give you, and the white man won't give you, no shot, you got a chance. Use it while you're still alive. You don't know what death is. You have no idea what death is. Make a decision.”

Pick what you want out of that quote, but the last three lines stayed with me - “You don’t know what death is. You have no idea what death is. Make a decision.”

Despite how close we’ve all been to death, through personal relationships or via shared information, over the last year or throughout our lives, the reality is we still don’t know what death is. We have absolutely no idea.

It’s easy for this fact to scare us and force us to consider what the end of our lives might look like. We might wonder the point of it all, decide to fold, and not do much with or for ourselves since it all goes away someday, anyway.

Or, we could decide to be here, now. After all, here and now is the best we’ve got.

Here, we have a choice to be present, be kind to others, adapt, take chances and navigate challenges as they come. Now, we can care less about our upbringing, regrets, or opportunities that we weren’t given. Here and now, we can continue to build on whatever’s left of us.

I have no idea what death is, and it’s crazy to think that folks with whom I have shared meals know what it is. I imagine that if those folks could speak to me today, they would say, “...you got a chance. Use it while you're still alive. You don't know what death is. You have no idea what death is. Make a decision.”

I wrote this letter to be as vague as possible because I want it to be open to interpretation. So, fill the blanks where you see fit — but know that if you’re here, right now, you have a chance to embrace life, show love, create new habits and be better at it tomorrow.

Have a happy February.