Touch That Speaks and Speech That Touches
Life lacks any coherence or purpose. We struggle to make sense of it in several ways, but there are times when things become too overwhelming and we are just not able to make sense of things anymore.
Everything, literally everything, begins to shake and, as Anthony, the protagonist of Florian Zeller film The Father says, we feel all leaves falling off. When close ties break off or get loosened, immortal loneliness slowly begins to grow in the corners of the abandoned house. In no time the cobwebs are all over, and not meeting eyes with the emptiness which the loneliness has left us with, isn’t an option anymore.
We then want some string from the Lord above to pull us out. We want, in other words, or in the words of Anthony, want someone to come and fetch us. In the absence of a place to put down our heads on, we long for a home, the way Anthony does. That home isn’t a shelter for the body, but the heart and its weakened threads. It is a craving for a place like the womb of our mothers, the life of our lives, a place where we felt safe, protected, cared for and warm.
One can’t return to the womb and has to live with the immortal loneliness, till the loneliness lasts, or till life lasts.
How comforting it would be, when caught in such a meaningless vacuum, if one were to find a shoulder to lean on and weep, and have someone say that the sun is bright and we could go for a walk, and more importantly tell us, like the Laura tells Anthony, “everything will be fine.”
Whether things get fine or not, but to have someone say that to us would mean so much. Say it not just to make us feel good or better, but genuinely say it out of affection, gently patting on our shoulders!
Probably the only meaning in an otherwise meaningless life, the only comfort in an otherwise discomforting life, and what makes bearable an otherwise unbearable loneliness of life is a touch that speaks and speech that touches.
Even if it is of a stranger. When the love of dear ones disappears, the compassion and kindness of a stranger begin to appear like love.
Crazy Mind's Eye 