Live More

Recently I watched a movie called Woman Walks Ahead, a 2017 American biographical drama film directed by Susanna White and written by Steven Knight.

The movie tells the story of a woman named Catherine Weldon, who’s a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn. She travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull and in the process becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples’ struggle over the rights to their land.

One scene that is particularly powerful to me occurs when Sitting Bull is showing Catherine some of his own artwork. 

“I am a painter, too,” he says as he tells the story of how he painted Custer’s Last Stand after having a vision of it two days before Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and others took charge of combined Native American forces and annihilated George Custer’s men at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

“This is one of the most exquisite pieces of work I’ve ever seen,” Catherine says, leading him to ask her why she’s sad. 

Her response: “Because you’ve lived all this and turned it into something beautiful. The only battle I’ve ever fought against is insignificance.”

But Sitting Bull counters with a poignant: “So live more.”

She ultimately does, and she and Sitting Bull grow to be important to each other. But after the movie is over and the credits roll, I catch myself thinking about Sitting Bull’s response. 

"So live more."

What would that mean, to live more? How do YOU want to live more?