Let’s Go to the Movies

I love going to the cinema. Even now, as an adult, I get caught up in the magic of it; I’m drawn in, fully immersed. Forced to pay attention rather than pretend that I can multitask and successfully follow a plot line, I get way more out of the films I see in the theatre than I do the ones I see in my living room. (I guess that I could use that information to alter how I approach my at-home viewing, but alas. My embroidery/knitting/whatever inevitably proves too enticing for me to ignore.)

For several years, hospitalizations and medical conditions prevented me from making it to the theatre. For months, though, I’ve been well enough that such an excursion is squarely in the realm of possibility, and I really, really wanted to bite the proverbial bullet and do it. My chance finally came on Saturday, the last day my dad was here from BC—more on his and my mom’s visit in a future post—when he and I took public transportation to a cinema downtown to see The Holdovers. It was fantastic. (To be fair, The Holdovers combines two of my favourite things, boarding schools and Christmas, and getting out of the neighbourhood is still novel enough to make me giddy with excitement no matter what the destination, so I was primed to like it.)

We navigated the situation like pros, and the outing went smoothly. I conserved energy before and after to account for the fact that I’d need to spend more time in my wheelchair than I normally do, and the only real consequences were positive. As has been the case with many recent “firsts,” this one, too, was world-expanding. If I can tolerate sitting through a feature-length film, what can’t I do?!? (Rhetorical question. Don’t answer it.)

Now that I’ve been reacquainted with the pleasure of the theatre, I’m eager to go back, whether to more movies, to plays, to musicals, to the symphony, or to the ballet. The “what” is flexible as long as I’m in a darkened space, transported to a different world, and preferably armed with a cold drink and a salty snack.

Interested? I’m always up for company.