Monday, June 9, 2014

And the comprehension I suddenly felt was the scariest thing conceivable.  I wondered what these people had witnessed or done in their lives, that had left them with these results.
As I looked around, I saw more and more of them.  Some were on their knees, holding their palms to their faces as if they were weeping harder than my weeping willow tree.
Some were shaking their fists in the air with faces contorted with rage and others were flopping on the ground, beating the ground and kicking like a toddler in the fullest throes of a fit.

I wanted immediately to help them, I wanted to lift them to their feet or hug them and tell them that it was alright.  That everything was "okay" but I had a strong sensation that it was "not okay".
I think my emotional state was close to breaking as I saw that the ratio of people walking and seemingly "fine" was about fifty-fifty to those that appeared utterly wrecked by their movies.

But my grandpa, always the protective one, spoke to me again and his voice pulled me from my anguish.
He said, Grandson, would you like to watch my movie?
And I must've shook my head or gave an affirmative because I felt that anything would be a better focus than my current one.
So again I sat, and again he sat beside me.  And yet again, as his movie started, people seemed to gather and sit around us.

I watched a very similar beginning to his life, seeing through his eyes, hearing what he heard and feeling what he felt.
And a large part of me knew, this time, that it was not me that I was witnessing.
But also, difficult to describe again, I felt that part of his movie did contain me, though I wasn't around until the very end of his time.
It was simply so relatable.  I loved his mother like he did.  His dad was my hero as he was his.
His thoughts and his pain and his happiness, they were all the exact same as mine.

I watched as his movie displayed a childhood fight at his school.  My grandfather was trying to stop one of his best friends from fighting another kid when something quite unexpected happened.
I felt a sensation of falling I think.
The best I can come up with is when you're lying in a bathtub full of water, feeling the partial weightlessness and suddenly the drain is opened.  There's a rush of water leaving and the gradual return of gravity's oppression.

And this is what I felt only perhaps I had fallen out of the bottom of the tub.
My grandfather's movie was replaced by a blur and I felt an unreal pain in my chest as if I had fallen on blades and they had pierced me a couple of inches below both of my nipples.
I coughed violently and realized I was being resuscitated.
A man with calloused hands rolled me onto my side and "lots" of fluid escaped my mouth.

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