What the Truman Show Says About Inner Religious Freedom

In the movie The Truman Show, the director of Truman’s show, is asked “Why do you think that Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world until now?” Christof responds by saying, “[It’s because] we accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented. It’s that simple.”

In short, Truman, he’s settled.

If you’re familiar with this movie, you know it’s basic premise is built around a man (Truman) who was adopted by a corporation, placed into an artificial world, and filmed for the entirety of his life; that is, up until the point in which we are watching his life slowly but steadily unfold and, seemingly, fall out from underneath him.

It’s a movie about one mans journey towards self actualization, freedom, and finding a truer sense of liberation. He’s leaving and risking everything he once knew in order step into what is portrayed not as a light at the end of a tunnel, but a dark unknown abyss; a singular rectangle; a dark mysterious hole in the wall at the end of his meticulously constructed reality (picture above).

But, the more we zoom out, the more we begin to see that the Truman Show is not just an entertaining movie it’s an allegorical story in which points directly to each of our modern day individual realities.

It’s relatable.

What I love about Truman is that he dares to rewrite the script in which was decidedly written for him. Despite what everyone says or how crazy he might appear, he voluntarily rebels against his “reality” in order that he might find truth and authenticity; a truth that would then only lead him into the possibility of one day achieving a truer sense of reality.

There’s no guarantee; there’s only a door leading the possible opportunity.

I can’t help but think of the church; more specifically, my individual experience growing up within the Church. My entire reality was constructed for me. I too, was adopted, placed into a bubble, and intentionally bread to serve someone else’s agenda; abide to and follow someone else’s rules and so-called morals.

They told me to bow and I told them I’m fine with waiting ’til later.

I’m not alone in this, and, neither are you. We’re a generation, I believe, filled with grow up adults who’s inner child is still healing.

The past ten years for us all, I believe have been mind blowingly confusing; as we see our 2008 economic collapse nearly revealing to us all how much of a lie the 90’s actually were; in that, most of our parents weren’t rich, they were just economically conned and blinded by the allure of what could be, but never truly was; then, there’s John Snowden, WikiLeaks, and the Internet in all of it’s entirety, all three revealing the reality in which the powers and systems that were, have been so adamantly hiding (e.g. the systems not broken, it was set up to keep certain people down).

Much like Truman’s life, our reality has been so far irreparably ruptured we’re all seemingly stumbling around lost in transition. The revelation that the Wizard(s) of Oz are not Gods or genius’ but instead they’re merely people, just like us, is over shadowed by the trauma of realizing we’ve been duped, lied to, and held back by empty ideologies for the past two decades.

It’s as if we’ve been given the keys to a car we’ve never been taught how to drive, let alone, shown or given access to road maps telling us where and/or where not to go.

Freedom, in all of its allure, can be a crushing reality.