I can feel the dried tears on my face. My eyes are scratchy and my head is clouded.
I just watched the movie Still Alice. Julianne Moore plays a 50 year old woman diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. It was such a beautifully made film and Julianne’s performance was one of the best I’ve seen. The supporting cast was also very good and the film brought me to tears many times.
It’s funny how films affect you. I once knew someone who said that she was never scared in horror films. She was trying to find a horror movie that would scare her. I, on the other hand, immerse myself in most movies. In fact, I think I generally immerse myself in almost every situation that I’m in. For a movie, I think you need to relate to the characters and their situations in order to have an emotional reaction like I had with this movie. In this case, it made me think about my own life, my family, my parents, my friends – this could happen to any one of us.
This woman was closer to my age than to either of my parents’ ages. She was a respected researcher, teacher, speaker and mother. And this happened to her. It’s terrifying. I’m sitting on a plane, hurtling through the sky at 913km/hr and I’m more terrified of some medical problem like this happening to me or to someone close to me.
The fact that this happens to anyone at all is sickening. It’s a terrifying disease – you lose so many things, but most of all you lose yourself.
Sorry for the sadness and melancholy. I’m just writing what I feel tonight. I’m exhausted from a long week away in a hideous hotel (faulty and noisy air conditioning, no car park, dirty room, dead spiders IN MY BED, live spider in the bathroom, bed like concrete). Anyway, in light of the topic of this post, a bad hotel is really nothing to complain about. I’m looking forward to my own bed at the end of this five hour flight home.
This is another piece I wrote while flying. About two weeks has passed since I wrote this, so the melancholy is long gone 🙂
Have a great day, wherever you are.
Tomorrow is a brand new day.
x desleyjane
Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist 
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