"It is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."

The Matrix: There is no spoon.

There are so many great things about the movie "The Matrix." It plays with my head and makes me think about reality in novel ways, and I love that!

I noodle on this quote a lot, trying to sort out all the ways it has meaning. The movie itself ponders the Descartes supposition: "Cogito, ergo sum," or, "I think, therefore I am." Neo contradicts this truth; he thinks he is, but he is not. His entire existence, or what he believes to be his existence, is merely a dream in the Matrix. But the "spoon" line is more Buddhist than rational, with its overtones of relativism, with the suggestion that the spoon exists only in relation to the mind that perceives it.

This reminds me of another portion of the movie, where Morpheus and Neo discuss fate and innately sensing something wrong with the picture, the veneer, of normalcy.

Morpheus:
You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?

Neo:
No.
Morpheus:
Why not?
Neo:
Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus:
I know exactly what you mean.
Let me tell you why you're here.
You're here because you know something.
What you know you can't explain, but you feel it; you've felt it your entire life.
That there's something wrong with the world.
You don't know what it is, but it's there....like a splinter in your mind...driving you mad.
It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Neo Meets Morpheus

I struggle to fully grasp how this plays out in my own life. How what I perceive to be true is what IS true. How I create reality with my intentions. How misery can often be a choice, and purely optional.

Grandma Moses said, "Life is what we make it. Always has been. Always will be." I think she had the Matrix figued out long before the Wachowski brothers did.