Sunday, April 6, 2008

Listen (Dory Previn)

For the last few weeks, a recommendation has come to me from many different directions: sharon posted about it to a mutual discussion list we're on, a woman from work keeps current and I read an article regarding - I must confess I am now addicted to the HBO series In Treatment...

Last weekend I started watching back-to-back-to-back shows through my OnDemand cable feature, meaning I can view anytime in whatever order - I obviously chose chronologically, and have experienced many a sleepless night over the last week, transfixed by the unfolding lives of Laura, Alex, Sophie, Jake and Amy... as well as Paul (the therapist), his wife and family and his own counselor Gina. I just finished watching the season finale (whoa!) and am already jonesing for Season Two - can this marriage be saved?... :-)

The instrumental theme song that plays at the opening of each episode sounds to me exactly like the beginning strains of Dar's As Cool As I Am, the band version from Out There Live - interesting, synchronistic or ironic?

Seems I used ACAIA, which I intended for today's blog title, previously - reading that post, written mid-July 2007 (almost 10 months ago), I see that I've made a good bit of progress with my own emotional To Do List. I've always fantasized (strictly professionally, of course) of seeing a therapist, imagining how liberating it would be to unload/unleash/untangle to an objective stranger - the thought of that level of intimacy is frightening, yet exciting. Am I (is anyone) really ready to open the Pandora's box, knowing the winged creatures can never be put back in? - maybe for now I'll just stick to the spew and send of "journaling"...

Therapy comes in many shapes, sizes and colors - thankyoujesus for this blog (until I have a Gabriel Byrne of my own... :-)

SONG: Listen by Dory Previn (scroll about 1/3 of the page down)

BOOK:
The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients by Irvin Yalom

POEM: To Light by Linda Hogan

At the spring
we hear the great seas traveling
underground,
giving themselves up
with tongue of water
that sing the earth open.

They have journeyed through the graveyards
of our loved ones,
turning in their grave
to carry the stories of life to air.

Even the trees with their rings
have kept track
of the crimes that live within
and against us.

We remember it all.
We remember, though we are just skeletons
whose organs and flesh
hold us in.

We have stories
as old as the great seas
breaking through the chest,
flying out the mouth,
noisy tongues that once were silenced,
all the oceans we contain
coming to light.

QUOTE: “Look, whether we’re young, or we’re all grown up and just starting out, or we’re getting old and getting so old there’s not much time left, we’re human beings—we’re looking for company, and we’re looking for understanding: someone who reminds us that we’re not alone, and someone who wonders out loud about things that happen in this life, the way we do when we’re walking or sitting or driving, and thinking things over.” ~ William Carlos Williams

2 comments:

  1. Therapy is the best ever. I wish I had health insurance so I could go back.

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  2. Hey, Amy ~

    I do have health insurance, which means there's really no reason I can't go, other than time/energy constraints - then again, maybe it's like having a child... if you wait until you're ready, you never will...

    It's definitely on my list of "things to do before I die" - I have a few friends who are therapists, so maybe I'll begin pursuing recommendations soon...

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