See, what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?
Did you ever see the film 2002 "Signs" by M. Night Shyamalan? The quote above is from the film’s character — a priest played by Mel Gibson —talking to his brother played by Joaquin Phoenix. The film is scary and in many ways predictable, but I’ve got a lot of love for any film that dares us to think.
This film wants us to do that — to think deeply about what we believe and what kind of people we are — but it does it in such a going-for-a-blockbuster kind of way, it’s awfully easy to miss the real raison d'être of this film, which is not “Are we alone in this universe or are there Martian-like creatures ‘out there' waiting to come and attack us?”
The real question Shyamalan is asking — wittingly or not —is an existential one: Is what happens in my life happening for me? Or is it happening to me?
How someone answers that question can make or break a life. And potentially even save someone else’s. Gibson’s priest character evolves his answer to this question over the course of the film, and his changed mind does, indeed, lead to the saving of a life.
But he had to think about the signs. He had to consider the seeming coincidences of his life and find meaning in the signs he was receiving.
Signs are defined as objects, qualities, or events -- the presence or occurrence of which indicate the probable presence or occurrence of something else.
I'm not sure there's ever been a bigger sign -- a bright orange neon warning sign blinking hysterically for the attention of the American people -- than the presence of Donald Trump as the president of our United States.
But if he's just a sign, what "probable" occurrence does his presence portend?
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