Live Aid
Borrowed the 'Live Aid' (1985's version of 'Live 8') of Damo last week (for some 80's music education!!) and despite his warning that it was pritty graphic, I decided to whatch all of it (all of the first disk of 6 anyway) including the BBC news report from nov. 1984 on the famine in Africa.
Ended up balling my eyes out!! -not usually a big cryer and never in movies or anything, but something about this being real people gets to me- it was as bad as Oprha's sepcial on the New Orleans thing. It got to the stage though were I had to start tunning out and becoming numb to some of it- I couldn't feel for all those thousands of starving people - or I would have had to start pulling out my hair or ripping my clothes etc.
Didn't matter if it was over 20yrs ago- something about watching a 3yr old girl, with ever bone visable, dying is hard to take. Guess I could have turned it off but I decided that if this is what some people have to live through then the least I could do was witness it.
As for tuning out and getting used to it- is that a sin or a coping response that humans need to adjust to tradegy?
I guess in those situations crying isn't much good, you need to get over that and do something productive. Don't remember Jesus ever balling his eyes out, he just got on with it! But when thousands dying of stavation becomes so normal that all you can do is accept and not think about it thats such a numb way to be forced into living.
So if anyone feels like a good cry I highly reconmend the Live Aid DVD.
Ended up balling my eyes out!! -not usually a big cryer and never in movies or anything, but something about this being real people gets to me- it was as bad as Oprha's sepcial on the New Orleans thing. It got to the stage though were I had to start tunning out and becoming numb to some of it- I couldn't feel for all those thousands of starving people - or I would have had to start pulling out my hair or ripping my clothes etc.
Didn't matter if it was over 20yrs ago- something about watching a 3yr old girl, with ever bone visable, dying is hard to take. Guess I could have turned it off but I decided that if this is what some people have to live through then the least I could do was witness it.
As for tuning out and getting used to it- is that a sin or a coping response that humans need to adjust to tradegy?
I guess in those situations crying isn't much good, you need to get over that and do something productive. Don't remember Jesus ever balling his eyes out, he just got on with it! But when thousands dying of stavation becomes so normal that all you can do is accept and not think about it thats such a numb way to be forced into living.
So if anyone feels like a good cry I highly reconmend the Live Aid DVD.
posted by Mim @ 4:43 PM
3 Comments:
At 9:19 AM,
Anonymous said…
hey mim. i was struggling with the same thing after the earthquakes in india/pakistan. what do ya do? i asked the same qn: is blocking it out a sin? if we feel it bad, God must feel it a million times worse. Sure it doesn't say Jesus bawled his eyes out much, but it does say a lot 'he saw them and had compassion for them' or such a thing, and his heartfelt prayers for people (particularly recorded in John chp 16 or 17) could easily have been so heartfelt they were accompanied by tears.
At 10:28 AM,
Digger said…
There is also the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept.
Not sure where it is, just after he finds out Lazarus is dead though.
Tough question though in terms of the validity of blocking it out. I think it depends on how that affects our response. If we block it out and don't do anything about it, thats dodgy. But if we know that we are contributing to the best of our ability, and are OK with htat, then its cool.
I don't believe God wants us to be permanently broken-hearted about this stuff, but does want us to be able to be troubled by it, and respond where need be.
At 4:31 PM,
Mim said…
yeah thanks guys :)
guess it gets back to the diff between the whole sympathy vs. empathy thing- feeling for people without totally feeling their pain.
Something I'll prob have to work on a lot if I get into music therapy stuff- your therapist can't lose it no matter how bad the sit. is.
I think my crying also had a lot to do with feeling really helpless to help in any way and frustration from that. There was apsolutely nothing I could have done for that girl- it was 20yrs ago and the doctors there had given up on her etc.
And I rekon we're all going to face situations where there is nothing we can do to help- as I'm sure Jesus did, although slightly diff sit- and now I'm confusing myself with the whole Jesus being helpless and Lazarus coming back to life thing- so i'll need to think that one through more.
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