Tag: character

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Emotion vs feeling things deeply

I got so caught up in finding the perfect version of the song for yesterday’s blog that I didn’t complete my thought about feeling unexpectedly emotional throughout the day.

But as I think back on it, I find myself pondering the distinction between being emotional and feeling something deeply. And I think I was experiencing the latter.

It seems likely that the song started things off by opening my heart extra-wide from the moment I woke up.

Later I was reading my book — a light romantic novel — but the plot involved the anguish of a doctor who had lost his wife and unborn child. And somehow the grief of my 1995 stillbirth was suddenly right there…almost at the surface, making me feel it deeply once again.

There were a few similar instances during the day, but finally, it was time for our regular Friday date night. We decided to watch the 2015 version of Cinderella, which we hadn’t seen since shortly after it came out.

Oh. My. Goodness.

It’s so beautiful and SO well done. Especially the way the entire story is oriented around the profoundly deep message: “Have courage and be kind.”

I found myself in tears over and over again, because so many of the characters really had…character! On display were qualities like goodness, sweetness, honesty, compassion, playfulness, and so much more.

I think my heart really felt it because — deep inside — my soul knows that a world based on such beautiful qualities is the true reality that we all aspire to…whether we know it or not.

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Nobility

We’ve spent the past three Friday nights watching The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. I read The Hobbit for the first time when I was nine years old and found The Lord of the Rings a couple of years later. From junior high school on, and well into adulthood, I would read the entire series pretty much every year.

So it came as a relief to me that the movies were so well done, bringing vividly to life a world that had lived in my imagination for so long!

At this point I view the movies knowing which brutal parts I can skip watching, while looking forward to the many incredible and uplifting scenes of bravery and self-sacrifice, of transcendence and triumph, of true friendship and kindness.

But something new occurs to me after this latest viewing. I find myself reflecting on the contrast between the nobility of fictional characters such as the king of Gondor (Aragorn!) and the king of Rohan versus the current British royals. I mean, I’m sure they are all lovely people in their way, but not exactly heroic.

Of course, you can’t really compare the times we live in with those of Middle-Earth, but I can’t help but feel that nobility of spirit is more and more lacking in our culture.