The Secret Life of Words

... and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5, RSV)

In The Secret Life of Words we see a young woman who lives very much in her own world, even when she is in the midst of other people. Hanna works in a factory, but doesn't interact with the other workers; she just keeps doing her job. It helps that she's nearly deaf and often has her hearing aid turned off. She is a bit compulsive. She eats chicken, white rice, and apple every day. She uses a new bar of soap each day, throwing away an almost unused bar. She never misses a day for sickness or for vacation. But she's called in to the manager's office and told she has to take vacation. So she goes on a bus tour to the coast. There, while eating lunch, she overhears a man on a cell phone wondering where they can find a nurse to go out on an offshore oil rig to care for an injured man. Hanna volunteers.

There are only a handful of men on the rig, it may well be shut down after the accident that caused the injury (and killed one man). There she cares for Josef who was badly burned and has some broken bones. He is gregarious; she is withdrawn. But they spend a great deal of time together, so slowly they develop a certain rapport. Underneath that rapport, though, there is much they don't know about each other.

Much of the story revolves around isolation. Hanna is isolated by her deafness, Josef by his injuries and immobility, the oil rig is isolated. We see some of the ways the people on the rig deal with their isolation, but it never goes away. They may all be there because of a desire for isolation. Even when on the phone, Hanna never talks. She occasionally calls a therapist, but only listens while the therapist figures out who it is. She also listens to a message left on Josef's cell phone.

Who knows why people opt for such isolation? It goes far beyond wanting to have some quiet time. It is in some ways a total escape from life.

One of the men on the platform is there to count the waves that hit the platform and study the amount of stress it can withstand. The steel that the rig is made of may be strong, but not strong enough to constantly bear up against the constant onslaught of the ocean. Everything has its limits. Everyone has his or her limit. Life is very like the constant motion of the waves beating against the platform. Without ways of strengthening ourselves, we will all in time be beaten down.

In time we learn what it is that led Hanna to such isolation. Her whole life is lived to keep away a past she cannot deal with. Josef's isolation is not so much a choice as the result of his actions -- actions that he traces back to a wrong choice on his part.

But when these two people so isolated get beyond the walls they have built around them, they have a chance to find healing -- healing that can only come from someone with wounds of their own.

The concept of the wounded healer goes back as far as the Greek myth of Asclepius. The concept is seen in psychiatry and also in theology, where scholars look back to the Isaiah's Servant Songs (one of which is referenced above). The identity of that Servant has been debated, but many Christians see strong connections between that Servant and the ministry and sacrifice of Jesus. The cross becomes the means by which all people are reconciled to God. Through the suffering of Christ, we are healed.

So too do Hanna and Josef bring healing to each other, not in spite of their own deep wounds (both physical and emotional) but through their wounds and the identity they have with others who are wounded.

The identity of the Servant is not limited to Christ; it also is a very fitting way for us to see ourselves. We are all wounded. Some have more serious wounds than others, but we all have them. If we let our wounds isolate us from others, we will never find the healing we need. Nor will others find in us the healing we can bring to them. It is only through a community of wounded healers that we will ever be able to nurse the world back to health.

I caught this film during the one week it played in Los Angeles, making it eligible for various nominations. I don't know if it will get those nominations or any broader release. This is one of the films I may have to mourn never really getting a chance to be seen and appreciated.