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Forrest Gump and the "Wisdom of the Ages" by August Turak
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In Forrest Gump, there are the two main characters - Forrest and Jenny. Forrest starts from a place of humility, because he's mentally challenged. But he's smart enough to know that he's mentally challenged. So he's humble. And so what he constantly says throughout the movie is "Momma used to say..."
To me, "Momma" represents the collective wisdom of mankind down through the ages. Forrest Gump is humble enough to realize that he's not smart enough to re-create the wisdom of the ages in one lifetime, so he's going to accept the wisdom of the ages - he's going to do what he's told to do by the wisdom of the ages, represented by the archetype of his mother. And as a result of that, he accomplishes what Zen says - "Walk, don't wobble." He just walks in a straight line with his life. He lives according to principles. And then . . . miracles happen for him as a result. He goes to Vietnam and becomes a war hero, he captains a shrimp boat and becomes a millionaire, he meets about four different U.S. presidents, and so on.
Meanwhile, back at the hacienda, you've got his girlfriend, Jenny - the girl who's rejected him. She represents modern man. And she's too smart, she'd too clever, she's not going to be bound by all these old traditions and old-fashioned notions about "right" and "wrong" and sexual morality and all that - she's going to finesse life and take all the shortcuts...
- and it's a classic tortoise and hare story. The tortoise - Forrest - just keeps plodding along, and when he comes to a brick wall, he just puts his head through it. Jenny - after going through a lot of hell, to the point of being suicidal - eventually comes back around to realizing that for all his other disadvantages, Forrest was on to something.
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