Not long ago, I was forced to watch The Virgin Spring, an Ingmar Bergman movie inspired by a thirteenth century folk ballad about a girl who is raped and killed. Her attackers unwittingly take refuge in her parents' house where they are subsequently killed when the parents discover what has happened to their daughter. The person who made me see this jewel said, You write about rape. You will love it. Umm, okay. This same ballad serves as the inspiration for more recent gems, most of them titled The Last House On The Left. I have no intention of seeing the one out right now. But I do like Max Von Sydow and found myself enjoying The Virgin Spring in that odd way that something real and profound can jostle you out of your complacence. The line that stays with me is when Von Sydow says, The most beautiful day can end in the most horrible of tragedies.
Which is what strikes me about the Natasha Richardson accident. A bunny slope, a ski lesson, a fall. Nothing terribly unusual about that. Probably not a thought in the world about danger, secret bleeding, head trauma. My heart breaks to think about that last hour of consciousness, about her joking with her sons. A lot of the articles point to the importance of wearing helmets, about precautionary measures. I hate whenever something terrible befalls someone how everyone seems to jump as fast as possible to saying that it could never happen to them because they would have been smarter. Not true. Terrible unpreventable tragedies happen all the time. Since my luck recently has been all but perfect, I think I'm going to avoid all slopes, bunny or otherwise. But knowing the words from the movie to be all too true no matter what you avoid.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"What's in the movie compared to what we shot is the tip of the iceberg." Natasha Richardson
Cocktail Hour
Drinking movie suggestion: Sunshine Cleaners
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Thursday!
9 comments:
This makes me think of those poor kids that got killed on Monday evening. My father had to be there for it all. He said, "I never in my life expected to bear witness to anything so terrible. We (him and fellow co-workers and police) lost it when that one girl's mom showed up."
Whoever made you watch the movie might have been trying to relate to you on the subject to rape. If only this person had been smarter...
There is tragedy in the world, that is true enough. All the helmets and locks ever made won't stop it. If you find a way to avoid all the slopes let me know, we'll get rich by making an infomercial.
Tragedies are like sculptures. A sculpturer sees a hidden vision in a rough stone. Tragedies are the hidden image in our day to day lives. Some times they are revealed.
Because of Natasha, same day, when my husband fell and hit his head on the kitchen floor,I put icepack on his crown and called 911. Life/Death can just be a blink of the eye away, fragile at best.
Michelle! I miss you so much. I just caught up on your blog the last few days! OMG so sorry about the surgury. Glad everything is okay. I sent you a friend request on Facebook. We need to do lunch soon. Joe is in the Army... I havent seen him since Jan. 21st. It sucks. I've been writing and sending out stories and the rejection letters are piling up. I'm taking a really interesting Fiction class at Oakland University. Well hope to hear from you soon. Love ya!
I learned a similar lesson quite a few years ago, when an ambulance flew past my house so fast it was a blur. I found out the next day that it was going for my friend's father, who was dead a mere 4 hours after his horrific roto-tiller accident.
Everything can change so suddenly, without any warning at all.
After that I made a point to let all of my friends & family know how much I love & appreciate them. I also do my best not to fear such accidents, myself. There are better uses for those precious moments of life.
sad indeed about richardson, but my nurse pal, who specializes in brain trauma, sez the aneurysm could have happened at any time
unfortunately, it was triggered by a slight fall during a ski lesson, and she initially refused medical aid :(
Where are you Honey? Hope you are not acting up again with some strange surgery or something. Come back, Little Texan!
Michelle,
I always liked the original 'Last House on the Left"...classic horror film. I stay away from remakes as a general rule. I think that person's reason for you to watch it was a bit off.
Natasha richardson's death was tragic...years ago I fell(under circumstances mysterious to this day...and no, I wasn't drunk)on a then concrete floor , knocking myself out. I don't remember falling, only waking up in a pool of my own blood. I didn't want to go to the emergency room at first, but I did anyway, since you could see my skull through the tear in my forhead. A CAT Scan and 28 or so stitches later, and I was back home. Still, I wonder sometimes what would've happened had I not gone to the ER...
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