In the movie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Burl Ives asks his son Paul Newman, "Do you smell that powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity?" The two of them have just finished a powerful discussion about the mendacity in their own lives that has kept them apart. After an agreement between Big Daddy to Brick, "I've got the courage to die, if you have the courage to live." Father and Son now rejoin the family group freed from their own struggle with mendacity. Big Daddy now sees mendacity alive in all the other members of his family, and asks, "Do you smell it, Brick? That powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity?" The film moves along with each family member uncovering the mendacity that has wedged this family apart seeking healing by uncovering the truth. A final revelation from Maggie the Cat that she is pregnant seems to be the ultimate gift of healing and new life to a tortured family unit. Yet, Maggie thanks Brick for keeping her secret (her lie) when they are alone in their bedroom.
Is there a great lie? Is there a great liar?
Or can man not help himself; like Jessup screamed from the witness stand, "You can't handle the truth."
The crowning achievement of the Creative Advocate was to create in his own image after his own likeness. An ability to stand in full awareness of truth. An ability to hear the lie and to reject the temptation. An active "will" like the Creator himself to "will" for the truth. For the truth always precedes the lie. The lie finds life only in the soil of the truth. The created one must practice perception or fall to deception. And after that fall the creation truly wrestles with the question, "what is truth?" Can man communicate to the world; to himself without "spin", without "motive"?
In "willing" to believe the lie, the created one now struggles to determine the truth. Finger pointing and "blame finding" now fill his conversation. Egotism surfaces and all consciousness centers on self and self-actualization. Separated he is alone and adrift. Acting as the source of his own knowledge; he now is filled with questions and needs direction. Mendacity not only has taken root but it has flowered as well. The fruit has yielded confusion. The Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah states, " I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps."
If man is rooted in mendacity, how can he know truth?
In "willing" to believe the lie, the created one now struggles to determine the truth. Finger pointing and "blame finding" now fill his conversation. Egotism surfaces and all consciousness centers on self and self-actualization. Separated he is alone and adrift. Acting as the source of his own knowledge; he now is filled with questions and needs direction. Mendacity not only has taken root but it has flowered as well. The fruit has yielded confusion. The Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah states, " I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps."
If man is rooted in mendacity, how can he know truth?
1 comment:
I loved Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. What I think is especially interesting is watching Big Daddy and Brick discuss "the mendacity in their own lives that has kept them apart," as you put it, and then watching it all start over in a way when Maggie announces her pregnancy, which is of course a lie. It seems like sometimes even when the proverbial light-bulb does switch on and we realize the problem and we know how to fix it, we turn around and recreate another problem in the exact same way. Seems like the ultimate case of "will he/she ever learn?"
Great clips, too.
As for knowing the truth when rooted in mendacity - I think it's possible. Like I said, all to often we see the problem, resolve it, and start all over again.
I may go into that more later. I'm up way too late right now and I'm not sure I'm making too much sense.
Thanks for posing a great question.
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