The Blind Side

Reference:Michael Jerome Oher (born May 28, 1986) is an American football offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Ravens in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He played college football at the University of Mississippi for the Ole Miss Rebels. His life through his first year of college is one of the subjects of Michael Lewis's 2006 book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game and the subject of the 2009 film The Blind Side...Wikipedia

The Blind Side reminded me of Philippine and someone from my uni year-Dr.Francis Tanglao. Dr. Tanglao was at that time a lecturer at one of uni in the USA. He came from Philippine,and at that time he was promoting his new playwright..so as he told his story, he acted and danced, and everything was stamped in my brain until now. Philippine is famous for its community spirit. Although it is a generally poor country, but the bonding among them has always been the strongest. Dr.Tanglao, in his short but endearing presentation, portrayed Philippine as it is:extremely corrupted, poverty stricken and strong hierarchical practice:society is divided into class ABC(on and on). But he also pointed out one very interesting point:the community spirit based on a very strong religious(Christian) belief:of love, sharing and caring. Infact, in every religion, love and brotherhood are among the fundamental concepts. How much changes and opportunity opened up because of this spirit of love, sharing and caring..I see the same sentiment in The Blind Side-where people in their everyday life met with different individuals. But only a strong feeling of love, sharing and caring can break the boundary to reach out and made the difference. Somehow, your root-how you come about to be that someone you are-can be seen from your action, your values and how you carry yourself. Like Oher, Dr. Tanglao portrayed each and every inch an image of that loving, sharing and caring community spirit.

*Rugby
...is a gentleman's game. It is rough in nature, but those who play the game knew that it is all about tactics and strategies. You can't just be in the position of Offensive Tackle, or be in the position of Line Defense, and be unaffected by the rules and regulation. There will surely be lots of physical contacts:some would bleed, some would broke, but it was never meant to hurt on purpose. That's where the fine line is: to differentiate between a game and a fault. it is the game of self-restraint, of strategic move, of extreme focus and strength. Life itself is like a football game. You may survive against million of odds, but only if you know, what is the purpose, what is your function and are able to adapt to the change in direction of most events that occurred.In the end, like Oher said, the question is whether we are brave enough to dare the chances , and honorable enough to shoulder responsibility that come along, or courageous enough for the challenges..The question that tagged an individual and the whole institution he was made from:the family, friends and the society.

The Blind Side addressed the blind side of the society. Issue that is starring us in the eyes, but no one has anything to say about it. People are segmentized, so much as they said they had moved on from apartheid, or differences in general, they are still pretty much prejudice. Even a study shows that,when given a psychology test, some of the samples unconsciously in their answer associated black with bad . Leigh Anne Touhy, Oher's adoptive mother, was giving the benefit to her doubts when she decided to take Oher under the roof. What Ms.Touhy and her family did was an exemplary behaviour of the famous Christian teaching:Love others like you would love yourself(not quoted verbatim). i remembered, in uni, one of my prof. mentioned, that whenever we perform good deeds, we should never question whether the person at the receiving end is worthy of the good deed. When we perform the deed,our responsibility fulfilled, and the rest is between the receiver and God.

what i like most about The Blind Side is Michael Oher the character. Instead of looking at himself as a victim, he accepted the chances, and turned it into a room for improvement. He didn't play the victim game,he never ask people to treat him differently because of his different experience, neither did he insisted on being overly hung up on his past life. Instead, he moved on, adapted to changes, tried to catch up and appreciated the chances that are given to him.Again, the question of honouring the trust people build up for him. Then there is a question of charity and genuine help. Oher demonstrated a positive characteristic by being able to accept when people wanted to help. Negative people would see it as a charity, feel insulted, and would probably shut the whole world off. and when i look at Oher, the character, i noticed that as much as it was innocence, it was also maturity.

There's so much more-theoretical, technical, idealism, and religious that i can think of when i watched The Blind Side. But the first thing that come to my mind was how grateful i am, for my family and for all the blessings.

He is truly an inspiration