“You may not survive what the world puts you through…” — Heart of Gold, by Jon Gibson (from Gibson’s Body and Soul album, 1989)

As Jon Gibson alludes to, there are battles in life that we won’t survive.

But there is also the war which we may win.

All of my previous posts about survival are about winning the war. Battles may be lost, but that doesn’t mean the war can be won in the end.

In All is Lost, sailor ‘Our Man’ (played by Robert Redford) is in trouble on the Sumatra Straits, after a storm batters him about and makes a leak in his boat.

He uses his survival instinct to try and come out surviving.

But almost everything he does, no matter how effective it seems, is moving him backward rather than forward.

‘Our Man’ loses battles, but he may still win the war, even if by a miracle and divine grave [the hand of God].

Cast Away

A few battles won may pave the way to win the war.

One of my favorite films of 2000 is Cast Away, which stars Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland, a FedEx executive who is marooned on an island after his plane trip goes wrong.

Chuck doesn’t win many battles on the island. Chuck loses most of his battles. He loses in his initial attempts to catch fish, build a shelter, and make fire, all basic survival ‘things to do’ if in peril.

But he also wins some battles. A few battles won can pave the way to success. Though there are defeats and battles lost, significant, pivotal victories make winning the war more likely.

Chuck’s worst defeat is leaving behind his wife at home, but if he wins the war, which is to survive, he comes out better.

These movies show us that winning the war is better in the long run than losing battles in the temporal.