Feeling Too Much [August 2020]

Something from last Summer.

Last night before bed, I watched a movie on Netflix titled Frozen Ground [2013]. The film is based on a true story. Robert Hansen is a serial killer who brutally raped and murdered between 17 to 21 women in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Alaska.

Pictures of the murdered women are shown at the end of the movie. For me, this was the most troubling piece of the film, seeing the faces of the women who had been killed by the two-legged monster. My struggle continued this morning, coming to a point in the form of a few questions. I’m not taking a census, but sometimes I contemplate the percentages. There are people in this world who feel too much.

Do you have the ability to connect emotionally to those around you, and if so, do you have a choice? Have you ever allowed yourself to establish a connection that is so incredibly painful, you’re immediately brought to tears, completely overwhelmed by thoughts, feelings, and images that are not your own?

When watching movies depicting emotional trauma, do you first need to prep yourself, engage a series of defense mechanisms, or possibly shut down your feelings altogether? Or maybe you’ve quit [highly emotional] movies altogether, and cast them aside long ago in the interest of self-care.

Joseph Shanklin

August 29, 2020