Cleansing

So I was watching a movie today – one that I love – and my daughter came downstairs just in time to see me dabbing the mist from my eyes. She asked what was wrong and I told her that nothing was wrong, I just always cry when I watch that movie. She said, “Well if it always makes you cry, how come you keep watching it again?”

It got me thinking. Why do people watch movies over and over again that make them cry? I mean, nobody likes to cry, right? I said “Well, it does make me cry in some places, but it’s a really good movie and it being a good movie means more than the crying it makes me do.”

That got me thinking too LOL

I thought about all the things that people do that make them cry, or feel angry, or, in some other way, bad, and I wondered why they continue to do those things. That boyfriend who is such an asshole sometimes – why do you stay with him? Those songs we listen to that remind us of someone or some time in our lives that wasn’t so good to us – why don’t we turn them off when they come on? And yes, those movies that tear us up inside – we keep watching. And I came to the conclusion that even when its sadness or anger we feel, people subject themselves to it because it makes them feel alive. The world we live in can be so crazy that it makes you feel numb sometimes and you just wanna feel SOMETHING – something to remind you that youre still capable of feeling. Furthermore, no thing is all good or all bad. If that asshole was an asshole all the time, I’d guess a person wouldn’t stay with them. If that person or time that a particular song reminded you of didn’t have some other positive gravitational pull, you wouldn’t allow yourself to go back. I thought about that the most because the nights I enjoy most are those where Im sitting on my couch, drink in hand, candles lit all around me, listening to my quiet obsession, channel 843 on DTV. I think, I jam, and yes, sometimes, I cry, but afterwards, I feel free and clear of mind. The old people (and Lyfe Jennings LOL) say “crying is like taking your soul to the Laundromat” and I believe that wholeheartedly. Maybe that’s why we keep going back – to face and deal with ourselves, as well as face and deal with the people and situations we no longer wish to face and deal with.

I found the whole thought process very interesting, and to think, all that from a seemingly innocent, common sense question from an eight year old.

Gotta love it.