Rush To Be Found

August Rush, Directed by Kirstin Sheridan, Rated PG

Freddie Highmore -- Evan, aka “August Rush”
Keri Russell – Lyla Novacek
Jonathan Rhys Meyers – Louis Connelly
Robin William – Maxwell “Wizard” Wallace

Evan is an orphan. His father and mother, Louis and Lyla, do not even know he exists. Louis never knew the love-of-his-life was pregnant, as they were torn apart by her father. Lyla knew but thought the child had died within her womb, after a terrible accident. The child did live however, as Lyla’s father secretly put him up for adoption.

Louis sings in a band and is a highly talented guitarist, lyricist, and singer. Lyla is a concert cellist. Evan is their child prodigy who runs away from the orphanage to go create the music that he believes will bring his parents to him. Once he arrives in NYC, he is taken under wing by Wizard, the Pied Piper of a group of homeless children who play their instruments on street corners for people who throw coins and cash into money jars and guitar cases. Of course, all this money goes to Wizard.

For me, the most profound moment in the movie takes place during a conversation between Evan and Wizard, who changes Evan’s name to August Rush.

Wizard: What do you want to be in the world? I mean the whole world. What do you want to be? Close your eyes and think about that.

August: Found.

Wizard: [pauses] Doesn't have enough yin. Little more yang, ya know?

August: Yeah


I believe being found is the cry of the human heart. We want intimate connections with other humans: not merely head to head but soul to soul. Even God said that it wasn't good for man to be alone ... and we can be alone in the middle of a crowded room, can't we.

Fame is not synonymous with being found, as the testimony of so many famous people will verify. Just because an individual has a lot of friends doesn’t mean that he feels that he has been found, either. Being found isn’t experienced solely by friendly human contact: it is a deep intimate connection that only comes when two people see, get, and appreciate each other on a very deep level.

Up until seeing this movie, I had always described this experience as being psychologically visible. Now I see that I had confused two experiences that, while often occurring together, are not synonymous.

Being Visible
Being psychologically visible to someone is a powerful experience: sometimes a shocking experience! When someone sees and gets that, for all of my people skills, I can only Do People for so long, and then honors this in their dealings with me, I know that I am visible to them, and am grateful. When they see deeper down into my soul that I approach life as a romantic or that I have a deep current of melancholy and are accepting of this, a deeper connection between our souls is made possible.

Where there is any authentic friendship, there is a mutuality of basic visibility. I mean, If I am blind to who you are, how in the world do I know whether or not I like you? And when you keep saying you see me as a so-and-so and I know that I am not, you should not be surprised when this invisibility creates a gap between us. True?

Obviously there are degrees of visibility, which can be seen in your friendships. The more we see of each other, the deeper the friendship can grow, until at some point we experience that intimate connection I am referring to as Being Found.

How many people go through life feeling invisible, even to their friends or family members? Of course, many people make it difficult to be seen by hiding so well. Sometimes the reason they do this is that their need is accompanied by a fear of being rejected after being seen by those they love. Are we humans complex, or what?!?

Being Found
Being found occurs when two people see down in to the depths of each other’s souls, and in this experience a bond is created that is something akin to familial love. This is what lifelong best friends experience. It is also what happens when we, romantically speaking, encounter The One.

Because these two experiences--being visible and being found--are so powerful, the lack of each can be painful. We were created with the need for meaningful connections with others, and when these needs are not being met we suffer. When we become invisible to someone who used to see us, we are wounded. And when we are lost after feeling we had been found? The pain is so horrifying, so crippling and so soul shattering that you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy.

Sometimes the pain is so severe that people become emotionally ill and handicapped. This occurs in those individuals who do not know how to manage the emotions surrounding these needs. One thing that will help us here is remembering that being visible to another human is a gift that is given or withheld: it cannot be demanded. Being found is a more valuable gift that, even more so, cannot be commanded. However much I want “you” to be the one who sees me and finds me—someone with whom I have an intimate connection—it is a gift, not a right. As long as we can hold on to this reality, I believe we will find the inner resources to regain our equilibrium.

In reflecting on our needs for visibility and deep, intimate connections, we should remember that the people around us have the same needs. For a long time, I was so hungry to be visible to those around me that I failed to grant them the gift I wanted and needed. This, of course, was because I was one of those complex humans who were terrified of rejection. Go figure.

Take time to listen. Ask questions that will help others open their hearts even more. If what you are hearing is other than what you wanted to hear, remember that they are gifting you by revealing their true self: be accepting, just as God accepts you: as is.

Of course, we are not always going to appreciate what we see. This is why visibility does not always lead to great friendships and intimate connections! However, even when we find we cannot appreciate or empathize, much less develop a deep bond with an individual, they are owed the respect due to every human, as all of us were created in the image of God.

I cannot help but wonder if some of our struggles here come from failing to realize that there is only one connection that fully satisfies these human needs, which happens when God finds us. Can any one but God truly see us in all of our glory and rubbish? Is there any connection we can experience that reaches farther down into the very depths of our souls, other than one with God? No, there is not. And thinking that any human connection, however deep and meaningful, will do for us what only a connection with God will do, will leave us dissatisfied: expecting from her, wanting from him, and demanding from them what only God can give.

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2009