The Human Experience

With all the recent sorrows, it was the right time to watch The Human Experience. My cousin recommended this movie made by a few young men who lived for awhile at the St. Francis House run by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. And it is a movie worth watching, especially young people. If it seems a little amateurish, it makes up for that with earnestness and sincerity.

The film features two brothers in their early 20s, Jeffrey and Cliff Azize, who set out on a journey to discover what three different lifestyles (the human experiences of the title) can teach them about what makes life worth living. How do people keep living when life seems hopelesss?

Their first experience is spending a week of winter with the homeless of New York. They slept in cardboard boxes and begged food. They interviewed several homeless people and talked with a few volunteers at a soup kitchen. The interviews were some of the richest of the film. One woman told the story of how on one of her first nights on the street, she observed a New Yorker come across 4 homeless dogs. He got on his cell phone immediately to find them shelter, and other people stopped and offered to take a dog or help find them homes. But no one noticed her.

Another homeless guy made the poignant remark that he knew God had a purpose for him, even if that purpose was to make other people take notice and be charitable.

The next stop for the brothers was an orphanage for abandoned and disabled kids in Peru. This segment had lots of heartwarming footage of the orphans going to therapy along with some clips of interviews the brothers conducted with life “experts” – Fr. Richard John Neuhaus before his death, an activist, a neurosurgeon, an artist, an actor, a rabbi, Dr. Alveda King, et al, - who reflected on suffering and finding meaning in life. These clips were interesting, but one criticism my husband and I both had was that too often the film allowed aphorisms from these interviews to take the place of showing the people suffering finding consolation or simply living. We both felt that less talk and more show would’ve made the movie better. But on the other hand, the audience the show is geared toward is sometimes motivated by short powerful mottoes.

The third experience was visiting Ghana to witness people with AIDS and leprosy continue to find a will to live even in the midst of poverty and illness. One of the best anecdotes from this segment was the story told by one of the sufferers with AIDS about how the community looked out the young kids whose parents died: the community gave them a new father and a new mother. No one stayed an orphan, no matter how old they were.

I hope the kids found something to reflect upon. I know I was struck yet again with the awareness of how much we have. And of how tightly I hold on to things I “might” need. How many times have I packed up clothes to hand down to a sibling, only to find they don’t fit the next child or have lost their elasticity? I should have been more generous about passing those things on to someone else. But more than I need to be generous with things, I need to be generous with gratitude. I need to remember to offer thanks verbally more often, and reflect on my face, not anxiety, but cheerfulness. I know where my next meal is coming from, I’ve got a warm bed, I’m as healthy as a middle aged horse. But too often I don’t let those comforts bring me peace.


We also watched Romance Without Regrets recently with the older boys – I want to giggle like a preteen when I say this. Actually I only watched the end because I put the youngers to bed. But I could hear the boys laughing so something Jason Everts said resonated. I think it also provided a hopeful message about the power of love.