I'm not sure how I got pulled into it--heaven knows there are so many things I should be studying--but before I knew it, 40 minutes had passed and I was still lost in clips of various Disney movie ending scenes. It sounds ridiculous even in my head, being a grown woman and all, but somewhere halfway through the dance at the end of Enchanted, where Patrick Dempsey starts singing "So Close", I completely lost it.
Such stories just seem to set us all up for heartbreak, don't they? It's the sheer perfection of it. Both people always have, of course, obstacles that stand between them. They have to fight for each other, be the hand outstretched when everything is falling apart, and balance the other's weakness--and maybe they don't know how, at first, maybe they have to learn--but in the end, it works, because they are right for each other. At the core, they fit. They match. They learn how to love each other best. And because they do, it doesn't matter what life throws at them--they can handle it.
Nothing in any of these movies sets you up for the reality of two people who fall in love anyway before realizing that they don't fit in ways they must. Nothing in any of the stories I've ever heard gives any idea of the unbearable decisions that have to be made when this happens. They don't talk about hyperventilating in the shower or nights spent alone or the loss of futures and dreams. They don't prepare you for how difficult it is to find hope again. I don't think anything can.
4 comments:
I considered so many options for what I could possibly say to this. All I have to offer is just ... I'm sorry.
I don't disagree.
Maybe someday we'll feel like we could write those stories. Or that we are them. Or maybe not. But maybe. Someday. And if not ever, that's what we tell ourselves to expect anyway. But I suppose it's easier to see while you're above the clouds. All looks sunny.
Why else do these movies end with the wedding? If there is any chance of falling apart, we don't want to know about it.
If it makes you feel any better, at the end of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" he gets freindzoned at the end and the hero doesn't get the girl. It's the only disney movie i know of where it happens, but it is there at least once!
I know what you mean about the hope thing though. I've definitely had my bouts with "what is the point in trying anymore?", and i can't say i've found an answer yet. The only response i can offer to that question is, "would you prefer the alternative? giving up on love altogether?" And to that, idk about you, but i have to say no.
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