Skip to main content

Pondering Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman’s tragic death has stayed with me. I have both puzzled over it and mourned it for days now. Famously gifted, endlessly busy with wonderful acting projects, the father of three sweet children, rewarded with plenty of financial resources—and yet, a deep need or perhaps craving, allowed him to test a dark path of self destruction.

Even the most talented of us, those seemingly delighted with their well-earned success, people beaming with what appears to be the things we all want, can still have a profound inner restlessness that desperately eclipses achievements, awards, blessings, and all good things.

I saw a Facebook post where a minister was reflecting about Hoffman. It was an attempt to deal with his death in some sort of religious terms. Someone commented on the piece by stating, insensitively in my opinion, that Hoffman's life ended the way it did because "he didn't have Jesus in his life.”

I find myself exhausted by such banality; as though someone with “Jesus in his life” is exempt from self destruction. I’m sorry but this kind of simplistic Sunday school religion is not useful in times of profound loss however sincere it is meant to be.

There are many Christians today who need to move beyond bromides and feckless ideas about life and death if they expect their beliefs to be taken seriously. Someone as emotionally intricate as Philip Seymour Hoffman cannot be explained by simplistic pious notions such as he was just without Jesus.

And the truth is, none of us can be understood that simply. We’re all more complicated than that.

Philosopher and law professor at New York University, Thomas Nagel, has written: “The point is…to live one’s life in the full complexity of what one is, which is something much darker, more contradictory, more of a maelstrom of impulses and passions, of cruelty, ecstasy, and madness, than is apparent to the civilized being who glides on the surface and fits smoothly into the world.”

This is more precisely how Hoffman lived his life. He reflected so honestly in his acting the inner turmoil, the unanswered questions, the sorrows and regrets, the unhealed pain, the treacherous urges and allurements that often pressed upon him. 

There is integrity in living our flaws, in refusing to pretend we are without our own emotional and personal entanglements and issues.

Besides that, none of us really know all of the secrets of others. Every one of us carries incidents, experiences, moments, memories no one else knows anything about. These things make trite explanations of our behavior or our life by strangers, empty, and worse, just harebrained.

Nigerian novelist, Chris Abani, has referred in his writings to a South African phrase called “Ubuntu,” which basically means, “The only way to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.”

Isn’t that so much of what acting is all about? And Philip Seymour Hoffman was one of those actors who did it brilliantly. 

The ancient mystics had a saying, “Regard mistakes as teachers, not judges!”

Philip Seymour Hoffman offered that wisdom both in his life and in his death. And neither his life nor his death can be dismissed with easy explanations.


© 2014 Timothy Moody

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

We are Made for Human Connection

There are words from Brandi Carlile’s song, “The Story,” that I might sing, and perhaps you, too. “All of these lines across my face Tell you the story of who I am So many stories of where I've been And how I got to where I am But these stories don't mean anything When you've got no one to tell them to” You don’t have to be single or alone to feel the depth of those words. Someone in a longtime marriage or relationship might feel them, too. The voyage through life takes each one of us through an assortment of experiences. Some of them ennoble us. Some crush us. Some lift us beyond ourselves and carry us into the lives of those who need us. And some carry us to those we need. Some experiences are burdens. Others ease and encourage us. Some leave us baffled and unsure. Some build confidence within us and are so affirming that we grow in substance, in courage, in tenderness, and sympathy. As we age, the lines in our faces can represent the hurts we have not yet resolved. Or t

Remembering Dr. Bill Craig

In Memoriam  Dr. Bill Craig January 1, 2020 In the Hebrew Bible, we see from the life of Moses, and the Psalmist, Isaiah and others , concern for the problem of living rather than the problem of dying.   Their primary interest was not how to escape death, but rather, how to sanctify life. Bill modeled that kind of wisdom.  The brilliant novelist Louis L'Amour, who wrote bestselling books about the American West, what he called “frontier stories,” basically said the same thing. He wrote, “The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.” No one attempted to sanctify life and get more out of the trail than Bill Craig. He was a deep thinker, a gifted veterinarian, a rugged and unbreakable man with the kindest heart and the purest motives.  He was a loving and devoted husband, father, and grandfather. Karen, Shalor and Melissa, Kellan, Nolan and Carter, were his world. They meant everything to him. I guess he had faults, but I don’t remember any of them.  There was o

Do we need a new country?

Have you seen the elaborate, stylish, opulent television commercial for Cartier? The original commercial seemed to go on forever, a full three minutes. They have shortened it now, but it still drips with ostentatiousness. It is conspicuously pretentious in spite of the beautiful music and the sleek panther and the stunning scenery and the elegant model dressed in a striking red gown. The commercial takes the viewer through an amazing montage of dreamy landscapes and famous cities and spectacular stunts while moving past a giant expensive watch and finally to a glittering diamond bracelet modeled by the woman in red. Each time I see it I keep wondering who the target audience is. It seems to be such an over the top expression of unbridled greed and materialism gone ape. In a time when much of the world is starving and millions are still out of work here at home it seems bizarre that Cartier would spend what has to be millions on a television commercial celebrating 165 years in