I do not know if it is an American thing. It may be a Western World affliction. Or, perhaps, an Earthly condition. Wherever it came from (comes from), the truth remains that often, in my life, I have felt that I am living a movie.
It could be that from a very early age I have loved "stories". Soap opera afternoons with Gram and Nana...fractured fairy-tales...ANY fairy-tales, for that matter...Dr. Seuss to BLACK BEAUTY and PETER PAN...later, the darker tales giving me goose-bumps and setting in motion "how to save oneself and be a hero?". They all mattered. Movies gave them voices, gave them faces other than my own, which helped me understand how we all might acquire different kinds of beauty and guts. Movies have been a kind of growing template.
Was it any wonder, then, that when confronted with unfamiliar landscapes, new characters and situations my parents surely never warned me about, I looked to art and literature--and to movies--to formulate alternative plans? For the most part, actually, it was early Catholic School training and modern American cinema that got me through. Those are the roots that extended beyond the familial.
When things have gotten too bizarre, too tough, too bleak, something kicks in and I remember old heroes--the plots of the ancients and not so ancients--how they extricated themselves and saved all around them as they did so.(Yeah, if the Joads could survive, then surely, so could I. Old Yeller might have had to die, but the family moved forward, and it was the right thing to do...Even if life grew complicated, could anyone have a more whack origin than Luke Skywalker? Now there is a tall tale to twist your psyche in knots!) I remember my Bible stories, too. The parting of the Red Sea and the walls of water--fish swimming in utter confusion as they looked out at Moses. I remember the various faces of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and how,even in "Jesus Christ Superstar" there was a kindness I longed to emulate--the vision of supernatural strength that went far beyond comic book heroes. Movies allowed me to "see" and to "follow" and to realize that there are maps we are supposed to find--to help us return to our places of origin--evolved. Giving, and giving back.
As they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. (Hopefully, makes you wiser, too.) Sometimes the lessons we are learning (and the stories we grasp to get through those lessons), give us remarkable abilities. Skill sets that we can later use in situations we hardly dream would occur--but they manifest. Exactly what we have mastered is what is called for, down the line. Like Luke, we can use all of the overcome mistakes, the bitter lessons, the growing pains and the final victories. We can use what we have internalized and add to the Family of People we come back home to.
Movies give us a shadow play: help us put a soundtrack to our adventures.They get us ready to meet our convoluted karma; our destiny.
At the very least, they can point us home.
It could be that from a very early age I have loved "stories". Soap opera afternoons with Gram and Nana...fractured fairy-tales...ANY fairy-tales, for that matter...Dr. Seuss to BLACK BEAUTY and PETER PAN...later, the darker tales giving me goose-bumps and setting in motion "how to save oneself and be a hero?". They all mattered. Movies gave them voices, gave them faces other than my own, which helped me understand how we all might acquire different kinds of beauty and guts. Movies have been a kind of growing template.
Was it any wonder, then, that when confronted with unfamiliar landscapes, new characters and situations my parents surely never warned me about, I looked to art and literature--and to movies--to formulate alternative plans? For the most part, actually, it was early Catholic School training and modern American cinema that got me through. Those are the roots that extended beyond the familial.
When things have gotten too bizarre, too tough, too bleak, something kicks in and I remember old heroes--the plots of the ancients and not so ancients--how they extricated themselves and saved all around them as they did so.(Yeah, if the Joads could survive, then surely, so could I. Old Yeller might have had to die, but the family moved forward, and it was the right thing to do...Even if life grew complicated, could anyone have a more whack origin than Luke Skywalker? Now there is a tall tale to twist your psyche in knots!) I remember my Bible stories, too. The parting of the Red Sea and the walls of water--fish swimming in utter confusion as they looked out at Moses. I remember the various faces of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and how,even in "Jesus Christ Superstar" there was a kindness I longed to emulate--the vision of supernatural strength that went far beyond comic book heroes. Movies allowed me to "see" and to "follow" and to realize that there are maps we are supposed to find--to help us return to our places of origin--evolved. Giving, and giving back.
As they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. (Hopefully, makes you wiser, too.) Sometimes the lessons we are learning (and the stories we grasp to get through those lessons), give us remarkable abilities. Skill sets that we can later use in situations we hardly dream would occur--but they manifest. Exactly what we have mastered is what is called for, down the line. Like Luke, we can use all of the overcome mistakes, the bitter lessons, the growing pains and the final victories. We can use what we have internalized and add to the Family of People we come back home to.
Movies give us a shadow play: help us put a soundtrack to our adventures.They get us ready to meet our convoluted karma; our destiny.
At the very least, they can point us home.
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