Questions that haunt me

I’d like to start with a question. Do you know anyone who enjoys shooting themselves in their foot or stabbing themselves in the stomach? Or do you know anyone who puts themselves in situations where they know they will get hurt? In other words do you know anyone who is crazy?

Okay. Now answer this question. Do you know anyone who likes to go see tragic, heart wrenching, and otherwise depressing movies? I bet you do. Now tell me what the difference is. I do not see a difference. Why do we spend time watching something we know will bring us pain? Why do we subject our selves to this torture of sorts? These are the questions that haunt me. In order to stop the haunting, I will attempt to answer them.

One reason could be that we just enjoy pain. We enjoy the heartache that comes from watching people have heartache themselves. Another reason could be that we like to watch people go through hard situations to make us feel like our lives are better. Sad movies help us see our many blessings and how bad our lives could be compared to how they are. Sad movies help us feel superior. Reason three could be that we feel like we have to watch the sad movies so we can feel properly bad for people in that situation and not worry about it any more.

All those reasons, I admit, are slightly sarcastic so here is my attempt to really analyze and synthesize. We, as a society, might watch these movies as a reminder that we can survive. Seeing people live through much more challenging situations than we are faced with puts things into perspective and makes our challenges seem less imposing. Another serious reason is the fact that most sad movies move us so that we want to become better people. My dad’s personal opinion is that the main theme in sad movies, like Fiddler on the Roof and Camelot, is hope. Hope for a better day and hope for the basic goodness of man kind.

Although I don’t necessarily enjoy tragic movies, I do see the point in them now. Life can be painful but there is always hope.