Jojo Rabbit is a brilliant movie that should have never worked. It’s about a boy growing up in Nazi Germany and his imaginary best friend is Hitler? And it’s funny? And it’s touching and heartwarming and beautiful? No. There’s no way. How is that possible?
Somehow it is. I saw it today and I loved it.
The film ends with a quote from a poem I had never heard before.
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Go to the Limits of Your Longing
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
No feeling is final.
No feeling is final.
What a relief. What a wonderful reminder. It all ends. Life keeps moving and new things will show up.
This too shall pass.
When I was in my darkest moments, struggling with thoughts of suicide, I felt hopeless because of this overwhelming sense that I would never not feel as bad as I was feeling at that moment. I was so sure that the weight would never lift. This was forever.
But it’s not true.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.