The other day, as I stared at my Facebook and Twitter feeds and read the newspaper describing all the horrific and crazy things that are going on in the world right now, I marveled that in the face of all these very real events, we still care about watching and reading stories.
So I decided to make a list of why we watch movies and read books… And not only that, but why it’s necessary to do these things.
Here’s my list…
to escape
to process our own lives
to make us laugh
to make us cry
to remind us of all we have
to remind us what we need
to catch glimpses of other worlds
to help us remember we’re not alone
to use our brains
to not use our brains
to step in someone else’s shoes
to see our own shoes differently
to relax
to get scared
to run away
to face the truth
Asked by an interviewer what it is that draws human beings to story across all cultures and recorded history, the great mythologist Joseph Cambell said, “I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive… so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
So yeah, that probably sums up the whole list perfectly– “To feel the rapture of being alive.”
Keep watching and reading and writing and wondering.
It keeps us human in the face of the real world.
xo Pat