I ponder occasionally on why it is that we as human beings so often seek out media (especially movies) that will make us cry. What are the reasons that we do such a thing?
I spent my evening watching two such movies with my sister McKenna. In fact, tears are still coming out of my eyes right this moment, so any somber or strange things I may say are really due to the fact that I can't really see my screen right now.
I am amazed at the sheer anguish I am able to feel as I watch certain movies. It sometimes feels like I've literally had my soul ripped out of me and all I can do is sob. As far as I can tell in my experience with people...despite what each person may say is the reason they watch such movies...I think that people seem to use tragedies as a way to reflect on the important relationships in their own life, to count their blessings. That helps explain why tragedies are so popular with audiences of us humans, despite the deep sadness they induce. Psychological research has actually linked sadness with increased thoughtfulness. What's happening with a sad movie is when it triggers a big enough emotional response, us viewers begin to analyze our personal lives and appreciate them more. This, in turn, actually makes us happier than we were before! Now, of course, if your personal life is in complete tatters, you might not achieve quite these results. In this case you should probably stick with the Muppets.
The two movies we watched were "Lars and the Real Girl" and "The Music Never Stopped Playing." Both films were about mental impairments of some kind. One was about a man who was so traumatized by being alone all his life after his mother died giving birth to him that he ends up ordering a life-size doll online and then falls into the delusion that she is a real person...his girlfriend, in fact...with whom he loves to spend time with and talk to. It was a coping mechanism as his brother's wife was pregnant (he was so afraid that she might die giving birth as well). The entire town rallied around him and his family, and rather than ridiculing him for pushing a huge doll around in a wheelchair everywhere he went, they integrated the doll into their own lives, treating her as a living, valuable being. In the end, he overcame his insecurities and his delusion (his "girlfriend" tragically dies), and he finds a new real girl to begin courting. The other film was about a boy who ran away from home when he was 19ish years old after getting into a fight with his father, and began developing a brain tumor that caused severe damage soon after. His parents didn't find him until 20 years later, in a hospital where they found out that he had minimal cognitive capability and had not ability to create new memories. Through exploration of music therapy, his dad is able to delve into the once-19-year-old mind of his long-lost son and is able to forge one new memory with him before he passed away of a heart attack. At the funeral, the son was able to remember that one new memory of his father, reunited by love once again. I really loved both the movies immensely.
The brain is an incredible thing!! Think of the elasticity of the brains of those who encounter minimal to severe mental impairment in their life! The things that we can remember, that our bodies can gain perfect muscle memory for, languages we can learn and communicate in, inventions we can make, questions of how the universe works that we can solve, the one face we can recognize in a sea of many, the ability to feel what another is feeling, the way we can dream and breathe and smell. How does a creature like us even really exist??
I just recently met a young man who has demonstrated first-hand the boundaries that can be overcome by a strong heart and a willing mind. His name is Britten, and while serving an LDS mission in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he was hit head-on by a bus. The damage was so bad, his parents flew to Brazil expecting to say goodbye to him. But, after coming out of a coma, against all odds, he began to improve. All x-rays, statistics, and doctors could tell his family was that there really wasn't much hope for him. He was blind, didn't seem to have retained much cognitive ability, and could hardly move his body in any kind of coordinated manner. Since then, he has re-learned how to walk, how to do basic motor skills of sports like basketball...and though he can get tired, he has learned virtually how to do everything with his body that he used to do. He is now in the process of re-learning the entire English language. He first appeared to not be able to remember who he was or what he had done in his life...rather, they soon learned that he just couldn't communicate it, because he had lost the ability to understand or speak in any language! And all this I've just told you, I have to take by faith, because when I met him, I honestly never would have guessed such a thing had happened to him. It is mind-blowing what he has done to overcome such a trial!!!
I don't think we learn enough from people as strong as Britten as we are meant to learn. We come away knowing that they are faithful, that God is on their side, that miracles really do happen....but do we learn more about our own capacity to achieve the unbelievable? I mean, really, just think for a moment: If Britten can lose all motor and language skills at the age of 21, and months later seem completely normal again, don't you think there are entire new skill sets or abilities that you have the capacity to integrate into your own nature, greater than you can currently comprehend? That brain that we saw overcome all odds...each one of us has one of those!! The possibilities are literally limitless! Never set boundaries for yourself. Never decide--even subconsciously--on things that you cannot achieve in this life! Because you can! You really can. It's not just some motivational idea that will help you do a little better than you're doing. It's 100% truth. You have the ability to do WHATEVER you set your mind to.
So do it.
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