Moments

Tali and EDI climb off of the shuttle and stand next to Commander Shepard.  It's quiet.  The land surrounding them is desert, all red rock formations and sparse, spiny plants.  The environment is similar to Joshua Tree National Park, in southern California.  As they begin the walk toward their objective, Tali stops for a moment.  She gets on one knee, reaches out her hand, and touches the soil beneath her.  The dawn is just breaking over the rocks, bathing the environment in warm light.  She is quiet; only a peaceful, ethereal series of notes can be heard behind the scene.  Just for one silent moment.

Some of you are familiar with Mass Effect, I'm sure.  This is a scene from the third one.  Tali is one of the first of her race to stand on the Quarian homeworld, Rannoc, in over 300 years.  Her people have dreamed about the simple experience of touching that soil for centuries.  There are a thousand different things the writers, director, and animators could have done in that scene.  A speech could have been given.  An exultant cry could have been scripted.  But the writer chose a moment of silence.  A moment for the audience to consider just how important this moment is within the scope of the game, how important it is to Tali as a character.

A perfect, beautiful moment.

As a race, particularly in the realm of the arts, we strive to create moments.  Moments like the one I just described:  just a brief few seconds where the audience internalizes something beautiful or insightful.  It's why we pause when we look at Van Gogh's "Starry Night".  It's why we have the scene where Luke sees his own face behind Vader's mask in the cave on Dagobah.  It's why The Return of the King ends with a line as simple as, "Well, I'm back."  All of these moments are meant to create a chance for the audience to consider.  What we consider in that brief span of time is different for each of us.  Some consider what it means within the plot; others take that chance to simply feel, emotionally, the scene; others draw a meaning to the real world, to their own lives.  But we all feel something; the moment touches us on a personal level.

I went and saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty today (excellent film, by the way).  At the very end of the movie (no spoilers, don't worry), I had one of these moments.  And in that few seconds, I considered what I personally took away from the film.  I can only poorly describe what I felt.  But in that moment, I thought about how important it is to create those moments for ourselves - not just on a page, or on the big screen, but in our own lives.

It's been said that a life is made up of many moments - but it wasn't until tonight that I really considered what that meant to me.