FilmRoar

A couple of years ago, while on a business trip to Los Angeles, I had a personal epiphany. I spent a Saturday morning sitting in a hotel room, thinking about my life while the movie Contact (1997) played on HBO. As I pondered how to deal with what seemed like negative influences in my life that were beyond my control, the movie turned to a scene where Ellie, our beloved scientist confronts David, the bureaucrat who has manipulated Ellie’s work to his personal benefit. David attempts to excuse his immoral manipulation and his trespasses against Ellie:

David Drumlin: I know you must think this is all very unfair. Maybe that’s an understatement. What you don’t know is I agree. I wish the world was a place where fair was the bottom line, where the kind of idealism you showed at the hearing was rewarded, not taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world.
Ellie Arroway: Funny, I’ve always believed that the world is what we make of it.

It would be difficult to explain the extent to which this moment affected me. The excellence of the script coupled with the sentiment with which that last line was delivered forced a paradigm shift in my way of thinking. That morning, with the help of that movie, I adopted a new, much more positive, personal outlook that has stayed with me to this day.