" They are not life Tristan. They are shells of life.
Love is made by God.
Ignore it and you suffer as you cannot imagine."
----From The Movie : Tristan And Isolde---
Just recently, we watched the movie "Tristan And Isolde" . Its a typical old-fashioned heroic martyrdom epic; a tragic love story of fate of two people separated by feudalism of two kingdoms where they belong. Until such destiny brought them together and fell in love with each other. And then, that same twist of destiny separated them from each other's arms and still the same fate brought them together until the grave's cold wrath ended the story leaving the heroine (Isolde) alone with a humble pride of loyalty to the man she (only) loved.
The story is typical but the flow is complicated. It's chaotic cascade of treason and hidden agendas turned the whole story upside-down. But in the end, the hero (Tristan) was redeemed. He did not defend himself but the truth did it for him. Same as truth in our own very lives that even though the truth is being twisted into lies nowadays, still, the truth will redeem the innocents.
What strucked me most in the movie was when Isolde was explaining to Tristan the essence and difference of life and love. That integrity, pride, honor, and such high position makes life, but life is only like a shell in the sea, and without a pearl, then this shell is empty.
This pearl in one's shell is the love. You may have a pretty good life with all those material things and tangible prestige and honor, but without love, you are empty. You may be a big, grand, and beautiful shell, but without the pearl, you are empty.
Some qoutes to ponder from the movie "Tristan And Isolde":
Tristan: You were right. Life is greater than death. And love is greater than either.
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Isolde: [reading] I wonder by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? were we not wean'd till then? But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly? Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den? 'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ; If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee. And now good-morrow to our waking souls, Which watch not one another out of fear ; For love all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room an everywhere. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ; Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown ; Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, And true plain hearts do in the faces rest; Where can we find two better hemispheres Without sharp north, without declining west? Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally; If our two loves be one, or thou and I Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.
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Tristan: Our love will be forever remembered as brought down a kingdom. Remember us.
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Isolde: [on a drawing of a couple on the Roman Bridge] What do you think became of them?
Tristan: They were lives... just lived.
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Isolde: Love is as strong as death. Why be capable of feelings if we're not to have them? Why long for things if they're not meant to be ours?
Tristan: There are other things to live for; duty, honor.
Isolde: They are not life Tristan. They are shells of life. Love is made by God. Ignore it and you suffer as you cannot imagine.
Tristan: Then I will no longer live without it.
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Isolde: Tristan, we both know this can't be, we've known it from the start. That doesn't mean it isn't true, it is, it just cannot be. I want to know that you're alive somewhere thinking of me from time to time. I want to know that there's more to this life and I can't know that if they kill you. Please! Go.
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Tristan: Your marriage will end a hundred years of bloodshed.
Isolde: [crying] My marriage to *another* man!
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Lord Marke: Did I love him like a son? Or did I misuse him for my own purposes?
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Lord Marke: [to Tristan] Is it possible a man might not see treachery right in front of him?
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Isolde: How many have you loved before me?
Tristan: None.
Isolde: And after me?
Tristan: None.