AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN

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There's a wonderfulmoment in one of my favorite movies, AnOfficer and a Gentleman, when Richard Gere, who plays a troubled, arrogant,and selfish young man named Zack Mayo, is being pressured and tormented by hisDrill Sergeant, Sergeant Foley (played brilliantly by Louis Gossett, Jr.), whounderstandably wants him to quit the Officer Candidate program and go home tohis former petty life. 
But Zack isobstinate, and despite all sorts of harsh, cruel treatment, he refuses to quit.Finally, Foley has had enough, and says that even though Zack won'tquit the program voluntarily, he, the Drill Sergeant, is going to have himdismissed.
"Don't you do that!"Zach begins to scream in a frenzy, lying in the mud, exhausted. "Don't you dothat!"
"Why not?" Foley angrilydemands.
And then the point ismade. "I got nowhere else to go," Zack cries out, trembling, tears anddesperation in his eyes. "I got nowhere else to go!"







Foley lets him stay,and in that moment Zach's transformation begins – from a greedy, selfish,egotistical brat, to an Officer and a Gentleman.
It's an old story.Before we are willing to really change, before we are willing to make thedecision to enter the path of spiritual renewal, we have to experienceeverything life has to offer and finally get to a place where nothing is left.We have to experience for ourselves the terrible reality of what the Hinduscall Maya, what the Buddha called Suffering. We have to hit bottom andacknowledge that we have "nowhere else to go."
Refusing the full experience of this world ofsense, pain, and pleasure, is to reject the plan of God. Spiritual evolutioncan't take place until involution is complete and every bit of life has beenexperienced. Only then can a real choice be made, and we have to make thatchoice from our own selves.
(And who doesn't love the final scene!)





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