My daughter came home this afternoon after sleeping cold on a friend's couch and waking at 6:00 a.m. to attend a film screening. She walked in the door and anxious to hear about the film, I bombarded her with questions. She couldn't answer. At first. "If I talk about it, I'll just start crying."
I backed off and within five minutes she started to explain amidst choke-ups and watery eyes.
"It was the most beautiful film I ever saw. It was perfection. So deep and meaningful. Every scene was perfection."
"How did the rest of the audience react?" I asked.
"Everyone in that audience cried at one point or another. There was a wait list of over 200 people and no one made it in."
It was the fifth showing of this film and the word had gotten around.
I love that collective energy of sitting in an audience and having an overwhelming emotional experience. As you leave the theatre, you look at everyone a little differently. You know if you started speaking with someone, you'd cry. The depth of your glances bring a connection of the shared human experience.
That's what happens with good prose too. Nothing unites us like a good story. It's why when we talk about the end of "The Book Thief," that we have a bond-we've had the same experience. We've been moved in the same way. It's why a ninth grade boy can admit he cried at the end of "The Book Thief," and I can nod at him with tears in my eyes and for one second in time-we have something in common.
It's why literature is so important.
I backed off and within five minutes she started to explain amidst choke-ups and watery eyes.
"It was the most beautiful film I ever saw. It was perfection. So deep and meaningful. Every scene was perfection."
"How did the rest of the audience react?" I asked.
"Everyone in that audience cried at one point or another. There was a wait list of over 200 people and no one made it in."
It was the fifth showing of this film and the word had gotten around.
I love that collective energy of sitting in an audience and having an overwhelming emotional experience. As you leave the theatre, you look at everyone a little differently. You know if you started speaking with someone, you'd cry. The depth of your glances bring a connection of the shared human experience.
That's what happens with good prose too. Nothing unites us like a good story. It's why when we talk about the end of "The Book Thief," that we have a bond-we've had the same experience. We've been moved in the same way. It's why a ninth grade boy can admit he cried at the end of "The Book Thief," and I can nod at him with tears in my eyes and for one second in time-we have something in common.
It's why literature is so important.
Comments