All the way...

(Sarah's note: You know everything I say in this blog is "the world as I see it," right?  So the fact that I'm adding this disclaimer that maybe these people don't feel how I think they feel is just a given?  Okay, let's keep going then...)

Yesterday I had two experiences where I met someone who had an all-encompassing feeling in their lives. 

The second (because it’s my blog and I can count however I want to) was Sean, who has an all-encompassing love for movies.  Sundance was last week and he saw… 52 movies.  Yup, 52.  In a week.  That takes dedication, prioritizing, and an all-encompassing love for movies.  Honestly, I am not sure that there were 52 good movies at the festival.  The entire event was so encompassing that when he went back to work yesterday, there were apparently subtitles he was reading on his mental-screen whenever anyone would talk to him.

Sean is on the left.  Jon (being a robot from "Small World") is on the right... and not mentioned in this blog

I wish I cared about anything the way Sean cares about movies.  But that’s the thing with 100% encompassing passions… there isn’t much room for anything else.  Sure, fringe loves (or loves on the fringe of his movie-love), but this is it.  This is what he cares about.

The first person I met yesterday who had something all-encompassing in their lives was a sweet mother whose son died in Afghanistan.  On Matt’s first day in-country, he participated in a loading ceremony of this soldier (Aaron)’s body to come back to the states and be with his family.  Yesterday I went to visit Aaron’s family and relay my condolences.  And his mother – this strong and steadfast woman – had an all-encompassing loss.  You could see it in her living-room. The kind of thing I imagine where you have to wake up and remind yourself to breathe in-and-out all day, because this pain will smother even the desire to breathe.  

Obviously this isn’t the same encompassing experiences.  One is an all-encompassing joy, and the other an all-encompassing pain.  And while I think I’d like to have a life where I care about anything the way Sean cares about movies… I’m hoping to never have to have that kind of all-encompassing, soul-crushing pain. 

That's a bit of a stretch...

What’s the point?   

Gosh, Sarah, that’s a depressing blog post.   

I can’t wait until your husband is home so your blogs get back to happy.

Yup, I know internets.  But I guess the take-away here is… we never know when all-encompassing grief will find us.  We can’t plan on our lives turning into that – so why not find something that makes us all-encompassing amounts of happy.  The grief will come, or no.  But the joy… I think we’ve got to find ourselves.