TASK #45

November 6th--November 13th

A Cry For Help

Eveything hurts.  Michelangelo Antonioni

What I am suggesting that you do this week may be the hardest task of the whole year--to cry. It is essential that you reach the bottom of your emotional/spiritual cave and when you're there, do a little housecleaning.

Crying can be cathartic. Crying can be liberating.

I hadn't cried in years. I never allowed myself to cry. I stifled the urge to cry. Then one evening I let loose.

What caused me to cry was a scene in the movie "Rudy". Now, it wasn't Rudy that made me cry, or that the movie was about football, or whatever--I cried because this one particular scene moved me: the crowd was chanting, the music swelled, and Rudy, in a moment of complete vindication for a lifetime of suffering, he ran onto the field at Notre Dame stadium to play...

I didn't cry any other time in the film, and I've seen plenty of sports movies that made me yawn, not cry, but that moment in that particular film touched me in a very emotional way. I cried not just in joy for Rudy, but I cried because underdogs sometimes win, and I cried in the hope that I could find my moment of triumph, and I cried because I didn't know if I ever would feel that moment of triumph and exhilaration as Rudy felt...

But as I started to cry I started to think a girl I lost, a job I didn't get, my mother's death, my nephew's physical condition and I cried for reasons that I didn't even understand. 

And when I was done crying I was spent. Exhausted. But somehow satisfied...and calm.

TASK:

This week you cry. I might be easier if you're alone. How? For me it's Rudy, or It's A Wonderful Life, or Rocky. But it doesn't have to be a movie. It can be a passage in a book, or a photograph, or a home movie, which are particularily effective, because nothing triggers tears like family...

And once your crying, let yourself go. Shudder. Wail. Fall to the floor. Empty the well.

Comments: joedoebula@gmail.com