How Brokeback Affected Me--continued

[mcnell1120]

The 25 - 30 people (I still do not know how that many people fit in my living room , but it worked) who saw it on my big screen TV in Texas at the BBQ in August 2006, was also very special, because the closeness of the folks in the small area allowed everyone to express their feelings with no restraint or embarrassment, and being able to physically console one another. A different setting, yet an amazing time.

It was amazing Linda...although I couldn't handle to see the ending of this film you were there for me and I will be forever grateful!

[killersmom]

It was amazing Linda...although I couldn't handle to see the ending of this film you were there for me and I will be forever grateful!

I am so glad I was, Nellie, and I am forever grateful we met and are friends!!

[Cally]

I've just passed my 4-year anniversary. Yesterday I put on the dvd for the first time for ages (to watch SNIT, for purposes of research for the TOTW ) and just one or two bars of The Wings brought the original feelings flooding back - but with the difference that it's all now linked with the friendship I've found here on the forum.

[Sason]

Happy 4 fucking years, Sara!!!   

[Trigger Hippie]

I've just passed my 4-year anniversary. Yesterday I put on the dvd for the first time for ages (to watch SNIT, for purposes of research for the TOTW ) and just one or two bars of The Wings brought the original feelings flooding back - but with the difference that it's all now linked with the friendship I've found here on the forum.

That's what does it for me. Not seen the movie since Oxford, have no desire to, but the music still affects me.

[CellarDweller115]

I was listening to the soundtrack just last week, it brings me back and gives me happy memories.

[Ennis Del Mark]

Makes ME cry like a baby so I rarely listen it, what with my history of depression and all.

[janjo]

I have a long history of depression too, but I have played the soundtrack almost into oblivion. I haven't watched the film though since our get together at Andy's about three years ago. I have to be mentally prepared.
I saw a friend last week, who said "Brokeback Mountain was on TV, I thought of you, I knew you would be watching it." I had to explain to him that it cut too deep for me to just watch it on a casual basis.
He looked very surprised.

[atruant]

Congratulations on your 4th anniversary, Sara!!

Seems I watch the movie now only when I'm surrounded by Brokies at a gathering. Like you, Jess, and many others, I have to prepare myself.

Making dozens of friends thanks to DCF, the other forums, and the get-togethers, has for me been as life altering as the movie. 

[Sason]

Making dozens of friends thanks to DCF, the other forums, and the get-togethers, has for me been as life altering as the movie. 

Couldn't agree more!

The movie itself isn't dominating my life any more like it once was, but - the friendships!!

My brokie friends are a daily source of joy and happiness,  don't know what I'd do without y'all!!   

[mcnell1120]

Last time I saw the movie from beginning to end was in Bay City...knowing that Heath is gone makes it even more painful for me to ever watch it again  ....<sigh>

[Rab]

'Saw the movie this past Saturday on a large screen at Indianapolis' Eiteljorg Museum's Out West presentation, which included a presentation of Beyond BBM. And saw it the night before at home, on the small screen, to prepare myself for what I'd see on Saturday. Both times in the company of Dave, my husband of 16 years. Both times I cried, often. Afterwards Dave noted, "it's not affecting my emotions as powerfully as it did at first—and that's a good thing."

By which he means we've both grown and matured in these six years past. The movie set some issues down right there in our laps, tossed them right into our teary faces, asked us to consider our path through life. And that of those we have loved. In some respects the movie showcases our life experience with being married—the sense that something is missing, has gone awry, even if it's not named or identified. BBM gives powerful voice to the experience of women married to gay men. Too, it depicts some of the challenges we face as gay men who choose to stay in the rural environment.

I've seen the movie many times now. I'm thankful for an excuse/reason to see it again here recently. Its power continues apace.

[killersmom]

Thank you for your warm welcome and kind words.

I'm reading Scott Russell Sanders, Writing from the Center, a collection of essays. I've started reading one of them aloud to my husband Dave, the one titled "The Common LIfe." Sanders does a good job of putting his finger on what he says are vital elements of community: "loving company, neighborliness, inherited knowledge and good work, shared purpose, sensual delight, and union with creation."

Again later on he writes: "The community I desire is not grudging; it is exuberant, joyful, grounded in affection, pleasure, and mutual aid."

And toward the end: "There is, in fact, only one life, one pulse animating the dust. Sycamores and snakes, grasshoppers and grass, hawks and humans all spring from the same source and all return to it. We need to make of this common life not merely a metaphor, although we live by metaphors, and not merely a story, although we live by stories; we need to make the common life a fact of the heart."

I tasted a sense of this in the presentation of Beyond Brokeback. got a feeling for the myriad ways this forum space has touched and helped shaped lives. To each of you who are participants in such alchemy, thank you. And kudos.

Welcome, Rab, to our little community and so very glad you have joined us here! I have been here from almost the beginning (as you can see by my post numbers) and that I talk a lot (as you can also see by the amount of my posts)!

Thanks so much for sharing with us and especially for the above quotes from the book you are reading. I am always searching for words to express more of what this movie has done for me personally, and for this community as a whole. All of the quotes above are just another way (to me) to express what all of this means for all of us. What brought us here, what keeps us here and together.

It means so much that we see new folks here, whether they saw the movie back at the beginning (like you and your husband) or just now seeing it for the first time. It's affect is timeless.

This quote has special meaning for me:

We need to make of this common life not merely a metaphor, although we live by metaphors, and not merely a story, although we live by stories; we need to make the common life a fact of the heart.

Thanks again for sharing these thoughts and for joining this family here.

[CellarDweller115]

Afterwards Dave noted, "it's not affecting my emotions as powerfully as it did at first —and that's a good thing."

By which he means we've both grown and matured in these six years past. The movie set some issues down right there in our laps, tossed them right into our teary faces, asked us to consider our path through life. And that of those we have loved. In some respects the movie showcases our life experience with being married—the sense that something is missing, has gone awry, even if it's not named or identified. BBM gives powerful voice to the experience of women married to gay men. Too, it depicts some of the challenges we face as gay men who choose to stay in the rural environment.

I've seen the movie many times now. I'm thankful for an excuse/reason to see it again here recently. Its power continues apace.

I have different reactions to it, and to be honest I wasn't emotional at all when I saw it in Indy.  I did get emotional during the readings of Beyond Brokeback, it's always impressive to hear those words in person, out loud.

The last time I saw the movie prior to Indy was at the MoMA event, and I did get emotional there.

[Miaisland]

Five years ago today



for all of it
for you - dear friends.