Is this what happens when you hit your thirties? This indistinct but resolute longing for a return to childhood? Cuz, damn. Enough already.
I brought myself to tears listening to two songs this week: Dan Fogelberg and Emmylou Harris singing Only The Heart May Know and a very grown-up Mark Knopfler singing a pared down and heart-tearing version of Romeo and Juliet. Then I listened to Willie Nelson's Crazy and had to go lay down for a little while.
Speaking of tears, Wall*E about slayed me. If this had been a live-action film with a breathing actor, it would be deemed too sad, too apocalyptic and desolate for children. It's a portrait of what we do to stave off the burden of loneliness, a picture of how the comfort of routine and purpose keeps hope's candle burning and the darkness of spirit at bay. It reminds us that we can measure our humanity by our connection with other humans, and that mere existence is not living. And guess what? The kids got it. My kids did, at least. Cap'n Jack walked away thinking how great it was that Wall-E found a girlfriend and true love; Miss Thing walked away thinking how great it was that Wall-E found somebody just to hold his hand. Holding hands is something to wait for, even if it takes seven hundred years.
Go see Wall-E. Do yourself a favor, though, and don't listen to Willie Nelson or Mark Knopfler right before.
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Totally just saw Wall*E. By myself, with a big bag of popcorn. It made me sniffle, but thankfully I didn't cry until I got home. There were some other dorks there who had also gone by themselves, which was very comforting, even though I didn't make friends with them.
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