Gravity and Empathy

Sandra Bullock's movie "Gravity" is getting a lot of good reviews, from critics and my friends.

After seeing previews, I didn't want to see it because it looked like it might be 90 minutes or so of Sandra Bullock floating in space. But with all those great reviews and Mike's interest in seeing it, I figured, like many movies, the preview wasn't a good representation of the movie itself.

Well.

We saw it last night and it IS 90 minutes of Sandra Bullock floating in space! Ugh. It was well done and I kinda liked the ending. But it was still 90 minutes of floating.

At least it was Mike's movie choice - I'm usually the one who makes the bum movie choices. In fact, for a long time I was banned from choosing movies.

As we were headed to the movie, I had a little epiphany.

Cancer has taken a few valuable things from me. I try to take it in stride and not obsess, but I still consider this often. My first round of chemo gave me some mild peripheral neuropathy (numbness/tingling in my feet). It resurrected and exacerbated some plantar fasciitis that had mostly resolved several years ago. Regardless of this, I wore some great heels to my nursing school graduation, and I killed my feet. That plantar pain has been problematic ever since. :(

In addition, this round of chemo has given me stiff hips and knees. Happily, that should go away when chemo is over.

Put together, these two "gifts" mean that, after sitting for awhile, sometimes when I get up, I'm super gimpy. To protect my sad foot, I'm wearing tennis shoes most of the time. With special inserts! :(

Add in my short hair and my lumpy colostomy stomach, and I'm feeling very middle-aged. Blech!

I miss my cute, fun shoes. A LOT. They're still holding out hope in my closet.

So on the way into the movie, as I was unfolding my hips and trying not to limp while my foot warmed up and stretched out, I had my epiphany. Maybe those middle-aged ladies navigating the world in their tennies haven't willingly abandoned the "fashion before comfort" guidelines. Maybe an unwelcome event dictated ditching cute shoes and skinny jeans. Most people have a backstory we might never imagine.

However, I haven't found empathy for sweatsuits with painted kittens yet.