I am enough of a snob to be embarrassed by how much I enjoy the most popular drama on TV. (And yeah, I also enjoy the most popular reality show on TV.)
But "Grey's Anatomy" makes some bold choices. They didn't quite kill off the title character tonight, but they did give her a glimpse of a pretty bleak afterlife. And I love theories about the afterlife. I think they reveal a lot about what writers have to say about this world.
For instance, "What Dreams May Come" (the movie--I haven't read the book) tells us that the writer has probably been in recovery, and that life seems to be a constant struggle to connect with people despite misunderstanding and change. And the only hope for happiness is to continue to pay attention to the people around you, and to deal with your pain.
The fascinating but sleep-inducing Japanese movie "After Life" or "Wandafuru raifu" (whatever that means) proposes that the most important element of moving on with life is simply accepting your past. To go on to the next stage of existence, in this life or the next, you need to accept the past-ness, the is-ness, of what has happened. Whether it was good or bad. It is yours.
And tonight, on "Grey's Anatomy" we see a character's near-death experience, and the main obsession of people after they are dead remains the same as on the show: the desperate, futile desire to connect with someone, anyone, especially with the ones you love. Despite all the barriers in the way, despite the inappropriateness of the contact or the degree of intimacy. They just want to touch someone and be touched.
It fits the show, I guess. I just want something more. It makes me sad that the afterlife poses the same problems as the present for most of these writers. But who are we to hope for quick fixes to all our problems, in this world or the next?
Today at lunch I had a Stouffer's Southwest Chicken Panini sandwich, with a really stale handful of original Lay's potato chips, Diet Coke, and 2 Whoppers.
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1 comment:
Of course, in "What Dreams May Come" (the movie) the writer reveals what seems to me a painful ignorance of how to help a person who is depressed. The solution may indeed involve coming into their world and remaining with them even though they try to push you away, but you don't cure a depressed person by also becoming depressed.
Sympathy only goes so far, people. What we need is understanding and care, not you mooching our problems.
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