I have desired to view the movie, “The Lady” since I first heard of it’s making in 2011. This movie tells of the the freedom fight of Aung San Suu Kyi and her British husband Michael Aris for the people of Burma (also known as Myanmar).
It is not with any measure of pride that I have to admit how very little I knew/know of the plight of the Burmese people.
According to Human Rights Watch, “hundreds of political prisoners remain, ethnic civil war and inter-ethnic conflict has escalated, and Burmese security forces continue to use forced labor and commit extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, among other abuses.” And this is the case today, as it has been under military control since, in 1962, following a coup d’etat. In 2010 the country had elections that (from my understanding) eliminated military rule … but that does not mean that corruption, violence and human rights are not still problematic there.
Democracy for the Burmese people has been the dream of Aung San Suu Kyi, seemingly all of her life. She was just a young child when her father was killed.
The movie tells of how her visit back to her homeland, from Britain, when her mother was ill changed the course of her life, and that of her husband and children (and the people of Burma). It follows the numerous years of separation she and her family suffered from each other, even to the point when her husband, dying of cancer, and she were separated.
Through the struggles, through the trials, both she and her husband were committed to attaining democracy, freedom, for the Burmese.What they shared, beyond the bonds of marriage, and two sons, was a higher calling.
I do not understand all that they experienced and were focused on to be able to maintain their selfless focus. I am sure that I would have given in, hopped a plane, to go and see my dying husband. I know I would have caved after years (a total of over fifteen years) of house arrest.
What I also know, though, is that they shared in a higher calling. They both knew that their suffering was for the greater good for a nation, for fellow humans. They knew that their loss, however great, paled in comparison with the loss of freedom that generations were growing up without. They knew that their pain was dust in the face of the pain of those who were prisoners and slaves to evil men.
Their sacrifice was, and is divine … it is God-like. He who sacrificed His own Son, for the good of all mankind.
“A saint is only a sinner who keeps trying.”
From The Lady
itsawonderfilledlife 