Where Do Tears Come From?
Sometimes I amaze myself with the amount of tears I can manage to shed. Whether watching a sappy movie, helping a friend through a tough time, or finding myself in deep loneliness...I always seem to have a deep well of tears just waiting to break loose.
Saturday night was the year-end performance of the REAL Christian Theater performance - Bridge to Terabithia. I was asked to help out, thus was guaranteed front row seats - of course I was eager to help in any way. Though the play was adapted from a well-known and award winning children's book written by Katherine Paterson, I had never read the book or watched the recently released movie, so I was greatly looking forward to watching the play.
It's a story of two children, Jess and Leslie, who don't really fit in at school. Although they don't exactly start off on the right foot, they end up becoming best friends. They find a place down by the river that is only accessible by a rope swing, and they call it Terabithia. It becomes their fantasy kingdom where they are King and Queen and they spend all their time together there after school. One rainy day while Jess is gone, Leslie decides to go to Terabithia by herself. She's a good swimmer, but when the rope breaks, she hits her head and drowns. When Jess returns, he doesn't believe the horrible news. He takes off to Terabithia where the grief over takes him. His little sister had followed him there and now was stuck trying to cross the river. Jess is able to save her and through it all realizes how important his family is. In the end Jess builds a real bridge over the river to Terabithia and takes his little sister there to crown her the new Queen of the kingdom.
It's a sad story, but also very eye-opening. As the student who played the character of Jess fell to his knees and cried out in anguish when the reality of the situation set in, my heart broke. The well of tears overflowed and streamed down my face. I had been warned that the play may tug on my emotions near the end, but as I sat there sniffling and watching the final scenes through blurry eyes, I wondered to myself: Where do tears come from? What lies beneath that causes them to overflow? Why can't they ever be held back?
I'm sure there are many answers to those questions, but the most important lesson that I learned from this is that life is too precious to let it slip by. It might be a freak accident on a rainy day or circumstances that cause people to go in different dirctions, but either way, we never know how long we have with the people around us. So let the tears flow if you need to, feel your emotions, wear your heart on your sleeve, experience life to the fullest. Enjoy the people around you, tell them how much you care, and don't let the precious moments of life pass you by.
Saturday night was the year-end performance of the REAL Christian Theater performance - Bridge to Terabithia. I was asked to help out, thus was guaranteed front row seats - of course I was eager to help in any way. Though the play was adapted from a well-known and award winning children's book written by Katherine Paterson, I had never read the book or watched the recently released movie, so I was greatly looking forward to watching the play.
It's a story of two children, Jess and Leslie, who don't really fit in at school. Although they don't exactly start off on the right foot, they end up becoming best friends. They find a place down by the river that is only accessible by a rope swing, and they call it Terabithia. It becomes their fantasy kingdom where they are King and Queen and they spend all their time together there after school. One rainy day while Jess is gone, Leslie decides to go to Terabithia by herself. She's a good swimmer, but when the rope breaks, she hits her head and drowns. When Jess returns, he doesn't believe the horrible news. He takes off to Terabithia where the grief over takes him. His little sister had followed him there and now was stuck trying to cross the river. Jess is able to save her and through it all realizes how important his family is. In the end Jess builds a real bridge over the river to Terabithia and takes his little sister there to crown her the new Queen of the kingdom.
It's a sad story, but also very eye-opening. As the student who played the character of Jess fell to his knees and cried out in anguish when the reality of the situation set in, my heart broke. The well of tears overflowed and streamed down my face. I had been warned that the play may tug on my emotions near the end, but as I sat there sniffling and watching the final scenes through blurry eyes, I wondered to myself: Where do tears come from? What lies beneath that causes them to overflow? Why can't they ever be held back?
I'm sure there are many answers to those questions, but the most important lesson that I learned from this is that life is too precious to let it slip by. It might be a freak accident on a rainy day or circumstances that cause people to go in different dirctions, but either way, we never know how long we have with the people around us. So let the tears flow if you need to, feel your emotions, wear your heart on your sleeve, experience life to the fullest. Enjoy the people around you, tell them how much you care, and don't let the precious moments of life pass you by.
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