No place to be hopeless
When Sylvester Stallone was an unknown actor in 1975, he wrote the screenplay for Rocky in three and a half days.
One year later, he filmed his movie on a shoestring budget, and it blew up. Rocky earned $225M in global box office receipts and was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning three. Including Best Picture.
In 2006, the Library of Congress selected Rocky for preservation in the US Film Registry for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Americans love Rocky.
He gets hit. Gets knocked down. Keeps trying. Comes back again and again.
The very first shot in Rocky is Christian iconography. A mural of Jesus above a dingy boxing ring in a gym called the Resurrection Athletic Center.
Rocky isn’t about boxing. Not really. It’s about perseverance, faith, and hope.
In the 1970s, around the time America was falling in love with Rocky, more and more Americans were also becoming enamored with the poetry of a Persian, Sufi mystic who was born in Afghanistan over 800 years ago.
Rumi.
Americans love Rumi too. For the last few decades, he’s been the best-selling poet in America, and he also wrote about perseverance, faith, and hope.
Eight centuries after Rumi’s death, his 13th-century words still show up at weddings. And on posters and internet memes.
Try Googling “Rumi Quotes.”
You’re welcome.
When Rumi died, thousands came to his funeral. From many faiths. Africans, Europeans, and Asians.
“It is said that people of all religions came to Rumi's funeral in 1273. Because, they said, he deepens our faith wherever we are.”
- Prof Coleman Barks, University of Georgia
Still today, there’s a memorial shrine for Rumi in Konya, Turkey. An entrance panel greets visitors with this poem.
"Come, Come, whatever you are, whoever you are, come!
Infidel? Come!
Fire-worshipper? Come!
Idol-worshipper? Come!
This abode of ours is no place to be hopeless.
If you've vowed to repent a hundred times and a hundred times you've broken your vows,
Come, come again!"
Most faith traditions teach our spiritual paths aren’t linear. The magic of salvation and nirvana and enlightenment is in not giving up. The magic is in returning.
Christians call that grace. The Qur’an calls it rahmah. For Hindus, it’s kripa.
Maybe Rumi is the best-selling poet in America eight centuries after his death because his message is fundamentally American.
Like Oprah and Abraham Lincoln.
We give Best Picture Oscars to movies like Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave, Gladiator.
And Rocky.
Like Rumi’s memorial shrine, our abode is built upon hope. Upon failing again and again and returning. Upon once being lost, and then being found.
Our magic is in the not giving up.
Grace. Rahmah. Kripa.
“I am a slow walker. But I never walk back.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Going in one more round when you don’t think you can. That’s what makes all the difference in your life.” - Robert “Rocky” Balboa
“The wound is the place where the light enters you.” - Rumi
That’s how winning is done.
Come, come again.
