21 years later, in 2017’s sequel ‘T2: Trainspotting’, Renton gives an updated ‘Choose Life’ speech, that marks significant cultural changes over time — ‘Choose life. Choose Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and hope that someone, somewhere cares. Choose looking up old flames, wishing you’d done it all differently. And choose watching history repeat itself. Choose your future.
Choose reality TV, sl_t-shaming, revenge p_rn. Choose a zero-hour contract, a two-hour journey to work. And choose the same for your kids, only worse, and smother the pain with an unknown dose of an unknown drug made in somebody’s kitchen. And then… take a deep breath. You’re an addict, so be addicted. Just be addicted to something else. Choose the ones you love. Choose your future. Choose life.’
Again, here is how the monologue can be spiritually rewritten — ‘Choose to be truly social healthily, without addiction to possibly anti-social media. Choose to really care, and not only virtually. Choose to wish old flames well, without need to rekindle them. Choose to ensure ill history never repeats. (History haunts and tends to recur if not careful. The further in time, the likelier, due to lessons forgotten, sliding back to the bottom of the ever-oscillating learning curve.)
Choose your brighter future. Choose reality, not on TV, not being shameful or to shamelessly shame. Choose offering lessons with forgiveness. Choose meaningful work, even if more challenging. Choose to further awake in these times with more substances “for” abuse. Choose to transform negative addictions. Choose the Dharma instead if you want to be “hooked” the right way — for now. Choose to love one and all. Choose spiritual life. Choose to transcend the cycle of births and deaths, to guide others to its freedom too.’
Related Article:
Choose Life, According To ‘Trainspotting’?
https://thedailyenlightenment.com/2020/04/choose-life-according-to-trainspotting
