A place of pain...

An excellent article on the upcoming cinematic debut of the well loved "Les Miserables". 

Good actors find a way to connect with the characters they are playing. Anne Hathaway was not different:

One woman she saw in a video clip had a particular effect on Hathaway and was, in fact, the person who influenced her characterization the most. She recalled, “She kept repeating, ‘I come from a good family. I come from a good family. We lost everything and I have children. So now I do this.’ She didn’t want to do this, but it was the only way her children were going to eat. Then she let out this sob like I’ve never heard before. And she raised her hand to her forehead, and it was the most despairing gesture I’ve ever seen. That was the moment I realized I wasn’t [just] playing a character; this woman deserves to have her voice heard. I needed to connect with that honesty and re-create that feeling. She’s nameless, I’ll never know who she is. She really was the one who made me understand why Fantine felt shame, what it’s like not just to go to a dark place, but to have fallen from a place where you didn’t think anything bad was ever going to happen to you – and the betrayal and rage you feel at life because you’ve gone through that.”

We compartmentalize so much of what we see and hear in order to keep it from touching us...if it happened long ago, it surely cannot still be happening. But it can, and it does. No matter how bright and beautiful our lives may seem, let us not forget those who suffer...many times through no fault of their own. The article is worth a read...

A reader asked for a link to the article....so sorry for not adding it in the first place! You can see it here.... 

Suffering...

So many believe that if we deny the pain in our lives or run interference for the difficulties in the lives of others we are showing tenderness and compassion...is it that? Or are we really just refusing to live? We are called to experience the hard and painful times as well as the good. Faith teaches us to see God's hand in it all.

"A few days ago, I watched as Mom fed her dying son his supper, patiently holding small spoonful after small spoonful to his lips, encouraging him to swallow and take a little more, offering him a drink, dabbing at his lips. Occasionally, watching him do the hard work of simply eating, she would shake her head sadly and offer him another bite.

I watched this unshrinking woman -- a woman who, ten years ago, would have told you that she could not possibly endure such a reality -- feed her son a pureed meal from his dish, while she nourished him -- and the rest of us present -- in a completely different way, with her unconditional love. Forty years ago, she had fed her son as she feeds him now; back then it was a game, now it is a heavy sadness. But both meals had been flavored by the constancy of her love."

Elizabeth Scalia has written a disturbing but beautiful article concerning living with and through suffering, it is well worth taking a few moments to read it here.