I
f you’ve never had a chance to see Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire, you owe it to yourself to rent it. You may miss some of the visual wonder that Wenders is so well known for (unless you have a big screen), but you will get a compelling vision of our interaction with angels, whose endless task is to witness and record the transcendent moments in humans’ lives.
Unable to act on our physical plane, but committed to intercede and attempt to uplift us with hope whenever possible, these angels find themselves at odds with humans’ ability to remain ignorant of the spirit realm, yet intrigued by our resilience and capabilities. To see into our hearts and minds, and recognize the spark of divinity robed in a body, is so emotionally compelling that these angels find themselves craving the human experience.
After 10,000 years of remove, what would it be to smoke a cigarette and have a cup of coffee, to breathe fresh air, to kiss or make love? In Wenders’ world, the question is enough to drive many an angel to trade in his wings for a go at temporal life, and find that many of us have done the same already.
As usual, Wenders illuminates the human experience brilliantly, its heights and depths, longings and loss, triumph and tenderness. Through the gritty lens of Berlin, Wings of Desire captures the spirit of humanity so beautifully that one could have concede one’s divinity for a taste of it. *****
This article is a Guest Post from Sheldon Norberg. Sheldon Norberg is the author of Healing Houses, which details his two decades as a professional psychic focused on healing houses where the death, disease, or trauma of a prior owner left not only ghosts, but rationally inexplicable phenomena, and physically palpable sensations for his clients to live with.