On Sunday, at our MMRP rehearsal, a particularly cool thing happened.
We had a guest presentation by Caroline, the creator and head of Vancouver's "Beauty Night" program for impoverished and abused women. This woman and her organization are hella cool, and extremely worth your support, and her presentation involved breaking into pairs, and doing a mock makeup tutorial in a non-triggering fashion. For someone who isn't even able to do his own stage makeup to date after doing theatre for almost ten years(!!), this was kind of cool. Yes I will attempt to learn to do my own stage makeup this year. Yes I said that last year too. I digress.
That wasn't the cool thing, though. The cool thing was the warmup exercise we did to get comfortable as a group. This involved taping a piece of paper to our backs, then walking around the room as a group and, whenever we made eye contact with someone, (anonymously) writing down a compliment about them on their sheet of paper. The idea is that the person is left with a piece of paper extolling a ton of positive and affirming things about them. For me, it has absolutely worked, and my sheet of paper not only made my day, but has been consulted many times since, as my body and self-esteem became a bit ravaged and frayed over the next couple of days as I finished my Zizek essay, failed miserably at reading and comprehending Jean-Luc Nancy, and generally tried not to let the upcoming weight of Cinephile and my end of term work flatten me. If you ever get any such chance to get delightfully overloaded with compliments from near-strangers and keep it for posterity, for the love of God, do it.
(I enjoy the cameo of my plastic Nightcrawler suspended from my windowsill in this picture. No, that wasn't staged. My room is just more awesome than yours)
-gentle voice
-awesome shirt
-thoughtful :)
-great eyes
-amazing friend (I'm guessing this was one of the few I did know... unless someone just really wants to be my friend and hasn't spoken up yet. In which case: what's keeping them? I like friends!)
-very nice smile
-great actor
-strong voice; great actor
-great, positive energy
-awesome smile
-really nice
-so handsome and positive <3
-gorgeous
-so positive!
-love your smile and eyes!!
-nice hair (as my hair was particularly long and disheveled this day, Kristy was a fan of this one: "I'm not alone!!")
-nice eyes :)
-sweet guy, wants the best for everyone (this one really took me by surprise in a good way)
-awesome spirit, so smart
-great smile
-good energy
-superhero star (hello thesis my old friiiiieeeeend - also pretty fantastic)
-human (this one was underlined for emphasis - glad we cleared that up. I guess I'll stop referring to myself as a frog now)
-great energy
-very considerate
-powerful (Well, y'know, with great power comes superhero stardom)
-Great energy, bouncy and confident (I enjoyed "bouncy"- some of these suggest people actually getting past the more generic - yet still very much appreciated - adjectives and suggesting a sliver of actually knowing me a bit)
-smiley and calm :) (it is particularly nice to see that so many people see me as calming, even if they clearly don't know me as well as the above individual)
-total coolness
-sharing, caring, sweet and lovely
-amazing eyes
-amazing personality and smile
-Classy pirate (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that was my friend Jonathan - still awesome, though)
-the kind of laugh that infects everyone else (I loved this)
I'm feeling better now just having transcribed all of these. Never underestimate the power of a page full of compliments in healing and picking you up.
Speaking of healing, howzabout a pertinent and equally 'good-happy-fluffy-feeling-yield-y' fact?
#57: Dogs licking you actually helps wounds heal.
As this, the certifiably most awesome study in the history of science, suggests:
"A dog kissing you obviously feels wonderful, but it might actually have physical benefits too. Studies have shown that saliva, both the human and doggie variety, can help stimulate nerves and muscles, and get oxygen moving again, which is the secret ingredient in helping wounds to heal. In short, “licking your wounds” is not just a cliche after all."
And if that doesn't make your heart grow three sizes, Grinch-style, I don't know what would.
And now, having successfully inundated myself with a case of the warm fuzzies, and, having just watched the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for class, I'm off to... watch the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. For class. Yay for getting to watch two MORE graphic rapes for the second day in a row. Said no on ever.
(On the plus side, that film always gets this rather excellent Led Zeppelin cover stuck in my head. Now I'm stuck ruminating on the vaguely offensive and comical nature of using the "Immigrant Song" that contains the lyrics "We come from the land of the ice and snow" for a Swedish film being reappropriated by Americans, and an opening title sequence that not only nods to Daniel "Least. Swedish. Person. Ever." Craig's 007 casting, but... something about oil. And sperm-like computer cables. Yeah, I dunno. If Bond and oil is what you want, you'd really be better off watching The World is Not Enough instead. And yes - that is another one of my favourite tunes, uncoincidentally)
At least this one has Stellan Skarsgard (yes, the non-Swedish version cast Stellen Skarsgaard - it seems his new nationality is "Hollywood" now). Which means that all the while he's doing horrible things, I'll just be picturing him running around Stonehenge naked in Thor: The Dark World. And that makes everything better.
In conclusion, my new favourite film catchphrase:
"Better get my pants."
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