Emotionally constipated
OK, for better or for worse, this is unedited, uncensored me. Sorry it's kind of a downer. I wasn't in a very good mood when I wrote it. (Obviously.)
Emotional constipation... It’s that feeling of being so full of emotion--pain, sadness, emptiness… (full of emptiness??)—that you feel like you’ve got to let it out… have a good hard cry… let the tears flow… ball your eyes out… But you can’t. You just can’t seem to do it.
This has been going on for what seems like months now. I’ll be alone, driving in my car, listening to music, and that feeling will come over me, and my eyes will tear up and then… nothing. I wonder if it’s from keeping things bottled up for too long?…
posted by The Contessa @ 11:59 PM
7 Comments:
OK, I lied. I edited myself. I just couldn't subject you to all of that darkness and despair, so I cut about 2/3 off the end of my original post. Believe me, if you'd read it, you'd be glad I spared everyone else. Besides, I'm feeling much better now. : )
Dr Camille paraphrases Dr Plato... the reason we need to be entertained by tragedy is that it allows us to transfer our pain to the actors and then we can cry for them and in doing that, we cry for ourselves in an emotional catharsis.
So go watch Joy Luck Club (that one always makes me cry) or the crossroads scene in Titus (you can skip the rest of the movie). And let them tears flow!
You are very wise, my dear. Thank you. Perhaps a good tear-jerker is just the "emotional laxative" I need. But definitely NOT "Titus." I found that film to be so disturbing that I stopped it part way through and returned it to the video place w/o watching the rest. I never do that.
BTW, I am now welcoming recommendations for "favorite tear-jerkers." Bring 'em on...
now I know that i have had my share of emotional constipation. Thanks Camille for the laxative recommendations. I find that My Dog Skip makes me weep in heavy sobs. It is one way to "let loose."
you might also want to try renting a video that is so terrible and poorly done that it makes you cry for the director...say for example...Mariah Carey's Glow???
you never got to the crossroads scene? tragic (har har har). Anthony Hopkins is collapsed on this cobblestone road in the middle of nowhere after more of his children have died and he weeps. Its unbelievably moving and then it rains on him (of course). Or how about the scene in Shadowlands, at the very end, after Joy has died and he sits in the attic with her sons and cries. That is a better movie.
Rico's recommendation was "Whale Rider." I think I'm gonna try that one. I remember my old housemate (the beloved) telling me she cried watching that one, and she was definitely not a crier.
Any other suggestions?...
Post a Comment
<< Home