The Backseat Driver, the Out of Control Passenger

Before last week, Michelangelo Antonioni was as unknown to me as the bouquet of a 150 year old cognac, however his 1975 movie The Passenger, starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, is a masterpiece.

On the surface, The Passenger is a transcontinental journey through Saharan Africa, Great Britain and Spain in which one man, David Locke, assumes the identity of a dead man. However, dig a little deeper and you'll see that The Passenger is a film of provocations, a film that explores the illusory elements of Don Quixote but with a degree of sexuality the Don Quijote/Sancho Panza dynamic never offered.

Through a series of events, Jack Nicholson assumes the life of another man, and scrambles for control of the other man's life. Though what Nicholson's character could not have predicted was that the life of the man he impersonates is anchored to the ocean floor, and Nicholson can only stray so far before the chains around his legs restrict his movement. Of course this is all metaphorical, but those who have seen the movie will understand how Nicholson's character discovers that taking on another man's life means taking on everything entailed within that life - include it's responsibilities, not just its freedoms.

The Passenger made me wonder: Am I a passenger or a driver? Am I in front of the rudder-wheel of a double-masted schooner or am I down below, rowing my life away, not at all able to see where the boat is headed?

For the most part, I think I'm in control. This makes me a driver. I call the shots. I accelerate when I want, brake when I must, and honk the horn when someone gets in my way. But at other times, I am also a passenger in my own life. There are times, although less frequent, where I take a backseat and relinquish control to others.

Like most binaries, the driver/passenger dynamic is a complementary one, each with its own advantages.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM BEING A DRIVER:
-I have free will; I must take responsibility for my successes as well as my failures.
-I can pretend to be someone else, but I won't enjoy it.
-I want simple things, but I don't want to obtain them through simple measures.
-Difficult = exciting. Challenge = reward.
-If I get food poisoning it's my fault, but it's a risk I've always been willing to take.
-Life each moment not as though it's your last, live each moment to a degree of satisfaction that if you were to get stuck in that moment for all eternity you would be thankful.
-Passengers often fall asleep and miss the best scenery.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM BEING A PASSENGER:
-The most beautiful things happen to those who let things happen to them instead of always pursuing them.
-There's much to be learned from not being the center of attention. You can see a lot more of the circle from the outside looking in than you can from the inside looking out.
-You're not always right. And sometimes "right" doesn't even factor in.
-Books, music and movies are not substitutes for life, and comparing your life to these objects will only frustrate you.
-There is no algebraic function that guarantees the slop of love will always be positive and rising. The direction of y=f(love) can change on a dime.
-Those who are constantly in the driver's seat are easily agitated.