George Kaplan

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react." - Charles Swindoll


I recently spent a rainy Saturday afternoon watching one of my favorite films North by Northwest.
It stars Cary Grant who gets mistaken for a man named George Kaplan, who has ties with the CIA and espionage.

Cary Grants character Mr. Thornhill is an advertising executive who gets kidnapped and then realizes they've got the wrong man. He then goes to great lengths to prove to them he is not George Kaplan.
His proving to them he wasn't George Kaplan would take him on an escape journey from New York to Mount Rushmore and subsequently all points in between, as Thornhill tries to decipher what information they so desperately want from him. Since this is a suspense thriller from the suspense master himself Alfred Hitchcock, one would expect all of the twists and turns within such a story.

But..my thinking afterward was, "Wouldn't it have been easier for Grant to prove who he said he was, rather than having to prove who he wasn't?"

After all, Thornhill was a big time advertising executive at a big company, naturally he had people to vouch for him and his school records would also acknowledge who he really was. Not to mention his medical records, family, friends. But like I said, this was a Hitchcock film so there has to be a little intrigue and suspense to want us to watch this film.

In our life we will unfortunately come across people who will mistaken us for being something or someone we are not. It will be easier for us to discredit them just by staying true to who we really are, instead of going to great lengths to prove them wrong. As Dr. Seuss would say,

"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!"