Forrest Gump Movie

Life Lessons from the movie Forrest Gump: 08 – Life (and It) Happens

The movie Forrest Gump touched, moved, and inspired people 20+ years ago. The life lessons from the movie are just as relevant today as they were back in 1994. They give the movie it?s timeless nature.

This series is dedicated to listing the many life lessons from the movie that we can incorporate into our daily lives to feel more peace and love ? and to live our lives with Gumption.

Life (and It) Happens

When Forrest was in the midst of his run across America, life – and shit – happened.

Forrest Gump runs through a pile of dog crap. It Happens! — Credit: Paramount Pictures

One fellow approached Forrest seeking council for a business idea. At that very moment, Forrest unintentionally stepped into a pile of dog crap.

The hippie man shouted, ?Whoa! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dogshit!?

Forrest: ?It Happens!?
Hippie man: ?What, shit??
Forrest: ?Sometimes?

Life happens. Sometimes we step in it. We can only step in it when we?re out there making things happen.

Forrest embraced life. He was out on the street living. Running. Making things happen.

When life – and it – happened, Forrest just kept moving.

He didn?t complain.
He didn?t let himself get upset.
He didn?t blame.

If you?re playing it safe and not putting yourself at risk, you may be able to avoid stepping in a pile of crap.

But when you?re actively living life, making things happen – stuff is going to happen. You will step in it sooner or later.

Accept setbacks. Move on. Take responsibility for your mindset. Just as Forrest did.

Are you willing to get your shoes dirty to make things happen?

The Life Journey of Forrest Gump

In the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest neatly moves from one life chapter to another.

First, he’s a boy.
Then he’s in high school.
Then he’s in college playing football.
Forrest then joins the Army as a foot soldier.
He becomes a ping-pong champion.
After being discharged, he becomes a struggling shrimperman.
Then he finds success as a shrimperman.
A wise investment in a fruit company makes him a gazillionaire.
Forrest then runs across America.
He reunites with Jenny (again) and learns he’s a father.
He marries. Jenny dies. And the feather floats off.

Your own life journey is similar when the perspective of time is used as the barometer. Movies have the ability to orderly group events. Real life comes at us in never ending waves.

What Feathers Do You Need To Let Go?

Feathers don?t have to be held on to forever.

At the very beginning of the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest bends down to pick up a feather that had floated out of the sky and landed directly at his feet.

In my presentations, I use the feather to make the following points:

Life’s randomness. There are an awful lot of things swirling around us that we have no control over.
Opportunities. Opportunities come into our life unexpectedly and randomly.
Choices. An opportunity sitting at your feet doesn’t become real until you pick it up.
Letting go. Just as the feather floats off at the end of the movie, some of the feathers you’ve been holding on to should probably be released so they can fly away.

What new feathers are currently floating around and about to land in your life?
What feather is currently sitting at your feet that you need to pick up?
What feathers are you holding on to that you’d be better off if you let go?

Next Blog Title: “You’re Gonna Have To Figure That Out For Yourself”
Next Blog Date: May 17, 2012

Forrest Gump ? Academy Awards History

Tom Hanks holds his Oscar for ?Forrest Gump? during the 1995 Academy Awards.

Congratulations to the 2012 Academy Award two big winners. Both “The Artist” and “Hugo” won five Oscars each.

“The Artist” won for Best Picture, Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius), Best Actor (Jean Dujardin), Best Costume Design (Mark Bridges), and Best Original Score (Ludovic Bounce).

“Hugo” won for Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Best Art Direction (Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schavo), Best Sound Editing (Phillip Stockton and Eugene Gearty), Best Sound Mixing (Tom Fleischman and John Midgley), and Best Visual Effects.

Seventeen years ago, “Forrest Gump” won six awards at the 1995 Academy Awards. It was nominated in a total of thirteen categories.

Here is the complete list of “Forrest Gump” nominations and Oscars won during the 67^th Academy Awardsheld on March 27, 1995, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The host that year was David Letterman.

Wow, the 1995 nominations indicated what a great year it was for the motion picture industry!

Was Forrest Gump an Idiot Savant?

Forrest-Gump-Book-Hardcover-1994 — Winston Groom's Forrest Gump hardcover version (1994)

In Winston Groom?s novel Forrest Gump (1986), Forrest is portrayed as an idiot savant. Quoting from Chapter 4, Dr. Mills says to a group assembled to study the strange case of Forrest: ?Idiot savant ? A person who can not tie a necktie, who can barely lace up his shoes, who has the mental capacity of a perhaps a six- to ten-year-old, and ? in this case ? the body of, well, an Adonis ? But the mind, the mind of the idiot savant has rare pockets of brilliance, so that Forrest here can solve advanced mathematical equations that would stump any of you and can pick up complex musical themes with the ease of Liszt or Beethoven. Idiot savant.?

In the movie Forrest Gump?(Paramount Pictures 1994), the term idiot savant is not used nor even implied. Forrest was depicted with a low IQ (75), although just above what is considered mental retardation (below 70). And there are two scenes in the movie that show Forrest demonstrating savant-like abilities:

When he assembles and disassembles?his rifle with lightning speed during his Army basic training.
When he plays ping-pong?with laser-like focus and superhuman physical performance.

Since Forrest Gump is a fictitious character and I?m not a doctor, my opinion is purely speculative and just for fun. I believe Forrest was an idiot savant in the book version but not in the blockbuster movie. In the movie version that starred Tom Hanks, Forrest was depicted as extremely simple yet profoundly wise ? a sage.

Here are some more facts about savantism, idiots savants, and autism.?

Forrest Gump and Patience

Forrest Gump showed patience throughout his life.

He displayed it as a little boy and he demonstrated it as a grown man. The examples of his patience are numerous.

What is patience? The dictionary defines patience as bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.

Forrest Gump certainly had his fair share of being provoked and experiencing misfortune, delay, hardship, and pain ? both physical and emotional. He handled those incidents with fortitude and calm, displaying an even temper and cool composure. He didn?t complain and rarely showed anger.

Are you a patient person?

Let?s look at a few examples of how Forrest endured with forbearance, and see how we can learn patience from hismodel.

Forrest Gump Movie

Life (and It) Happens

Forrest Gump showed patience throughout his life.

Are you a patient person?

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