One of my favorite movies in Jr. High was Tuck Everlasting. It had everything I could ask for: romance, adventure, and a message about the transience of life.
Okay, okay. To be fair, not many junior highers are actually interested in thinking about how quickly life passes. Or about death. But this movie presented the idea of life and death in a palatable way.
Based on the novel by Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting follows the lives of the Tuck family. They stumble upon what is basically the fountain of youth in a forest, unknowingly drink from it, and realize too late that they are all going to live forever. What at first seems like a blessing quickly reveals itself as a curse, for one son's wife and children didn't drink from the spring, and the wife goes crazy, taking the children away from the forever-young husband. The Tucks see their friends and family all die away, but they remain as they were when they drank from the spring. This is all the background to the main story, which is about Winnie, a girl who discovers the family and their secret. The most poignant part, the part that made my idealistic junior high eyes brim with awestruck tears, was when the father of the family is telling Winnie why she should not drink from the spring. He tells her that death is a part of life, and that she shouldn't be afraid of it. He says, "Don't be afraid of death. Be afraid of the unlived life."
Though this book has no religious implications, I think it is extremely applicable, especially to so many people my age... young college students, trying to figure out what they want from life, and whether or not what is expected of them or the American Dream fits into it.
As a Christian, I think it's especially true. I don't need to be afraid of death. I know what will happen to me when I die. What I need to be afraid of is not living my life with a purpose while on earth. And honestly, what I want to do with my life should not matter. It's all about what God has planned for my life. And the thought of getting to the end of this short life on earth and realizing it was mostly unlived... mostly lived for temporary, worldy things, is far more frightening than dying.
So yes, Tuck Everlasting is mostly a cheesy, romantic, tear-jerker with trendy teen actors and fun costumes. But it also has a good message about how quickly life passes, and how important it is to make sure you are living yours.
Tuck goes on to say that what his family is doing can't really be considered living, because they just are. He says they're like rocks stuck on the side of a river that flows past them.
And because in reality there is no fountain of youth, and we all will die, the implications of our small life will echo into eternity, and we are living. It's just up to us to make sure that what we do is worthwhile.
