On Seriousness

In the dark and beautiful movie, The Banshees of Inisherin, Colm Doherty comes to the realization that he has wasted his whole life and is going to die an ordinary man, never having done anything great in his life.
So he decides that he is going to dedicate the rest of his remaining days working on his hobby, composing music. He wants to create something great like Mozart.

To achieve his goal, he needs to spend time focusing on his craft, so he decides to sever ties with his longtime friend, Padraic. He does not want to talk to Padraic, because he feels that he is not adding any value to his life.

But the frivolous Padraic, who is only interested in small talk and having a beer, keeps bothering Doherty insisting that they should remain friends.              

So, Doherty makes the most serious statement to Padraic,

“If you don’t stop bothering me, I have a set of shears at home. And each time you bother me from this day on, I’ll take those shears and I’ll take one of my fingers off with them. And I’ll give that finger to you until I have no fingers left. Does this make things clearer to you?

The dull Padraic does not get the point. He keeps bothering him.

Doherty keeps his promise, he cuts one of his fingers and throws it at Padraic’s door.

Padraic is stunned, but still does not get the point.  He somehow ends up talking to Doherty for the second time.  Doherty chops off his second finger.

As you can guess the tiresome Padraic still gets to bother Doherty for the third, fourth and fifth time.

Doherty keeps his word and chops off his own finger every time Padraic bothers him, until his hand is left with no fingers.  

When a man is serious, he will do whatever it takes.

Life is life
Fabio