Am I being over-sensitive?
I was cross with my husband earlier tonight. His Mum loves to watch anything he chooses to show her on t.v., and as he has a large collection of DVDs, they have been having a ball the last few nights. (I'm usually doing something more productive like ironing, washing dishes, stitching...)
Tonight, Ken started off with some animated movies, moved on to Bugs Bunny cartoons (at which they both laughed non-stop), and then for some reason, he brought out a documentary DVD on WW2. Whizzing in and out of the lounge room, I saw on the screen the young blokes marching off to war. I heard MIL say "It was so sad, all those lovely boys going off, and so many never returned". I caught Ken's eye and scowled at him, indicating I wasn't impressed by his choice of DVD. He asked his Mum if it was upsetting her and she said "Oh no, it's bringing back so many memories". When he came out to the kitchen and related that to me, I said "That is exactly what I was trying to convey to you - those memories are sad ones, and at her age, she doesn't need to be reminded of that time".
I had in mind the people I've spoken to in aged care facilities about war movies and memorabilia - most of them said they hated to see those films as they brought all the horror of wartime back to them. To my generation (Baby Boomers), they are just films. We know they actually happened, but we can only try to imagine what the reality of living through that time was like. For instance, I will never willingly watch footage of the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11; it was the most awful thing I have ever seen in my life, and every time I see it somewhere, I feel almost sick, like I did when I was watching it live on t.v. So I'm guessing that to watch film of the London blitz and other war film, people who survived it would feel the same as I do about 9/11.
Tonight, Ken started off with some animated movies, moved on to Bugs Bunny cartoons (at which they both laughed non-stop), and then for some reason, he brought out a documentary DVD on WW2. Whizzing in and out of the lounge room, I saw on the screen the young blokes marching off to war. I heard MIL say "It was so sad, all those lovely boys going off, and so many never returned". I caught Ken's eye and scowled at him, indicating I wasn't impressed by his choice of DVD. He asked his Mum if it was upsetting her and she said "Oh no, it's bringing back so many memories". When he came out to the kitchen and related that to me, I said "That is exactly what I was trying to convey to you - those memories are sad ones, and at her age, she doesn't need to be reminded of that time".
I had in mind the people I've spoken to in aged care facilities about war movies and memorabilia - most of them said they hated to see those films as they brought all the horror of wartime back to them. To my generation (Baby Boomers), they are just films. We know they actually happened, but we can only try to imagine what the reality of living through that time was like. For instance, I will never willingly watch footage of the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11; it was the most awful thing I have ever seen in my life, and every time I see it somewhere, I feel almost sick, like I did when I was watching it live on t.v. So I'm guessing that to watch film of the London blitz and other war film, people who survived it would feel the same as I do about 9/11.
posted by Gina E. | 12:29 am
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