Sunday, January 16, 2011

Women


It was good to get out of the house and go to the Opera House.

It was an amazing rehearsal.

I have to tell you something. I can't believe they let me be in this play.

We rehearsed Act 2 this afternoon and we're going to have to start holding back because we're already in full-blown tears on the stage. All of us. And the woman who is making us cry is a tiny little thing who has five children at home and hasn't acted since she was in college and she's pulling things out of her gut that put me fully in the moment, even on the sort-of bare stage. And the woman who plays her daughter is perfect and so is our Annelle. These are our "new" people and we "old" people are reaching up to touch the ceiling of the best we can do.

This is really going to be a fine production.

It's all women, as I have pointed out, and somehow, that changes things. We all have our hands in each others' hair and I'm doing a nice little hand massage on Shelby during a manicure scene and we're hugging and patting and swatting and laughing and crying and... shitfire.

I love women.

I have often offered as proof that sexual orientation is what you're born with by the fact that I am not a lesbian. If I could have CHOSEN, I would chosen women. I love the way women's bodies look and they way they feel when you hug them and I love their hard-working hands but mostly I love the way women can leak hearts.

Whether it's a woman you've known forever and whom you finally tell her your deepest, darkest secret to, or a woman you've never seen before but with whom you are washing your hands in a public bathroom and you both walk out of there knowing something about each other that you could never have imagined knowing or sharing- women leak hearts.

And here we are, women playing women who come together in this so-very-female place, a beauty salon, who have known each other forever and there are no secrets there and they go through marriage and birth and death together. And they cry and they laugh and they love each other even when what they do is mystifying or crazy or weird.

And they get their hair done.

They relax and let another woman touch them and make them more beautiful and they leak their hearts and they gain strength from each other as well as hope and comfort.

Oh god. I am so lucky to be part of this. I cannot even believe it. I want so badly to be the best Truvy I can possibly be. I want to be the beauty-shop mama, the woman whose children are growing up and moving out, the woman who doesn't always understand but always leads with her heart.
The woman who loves romance. The woman who says, "I have a strict policy. No one cries in my presence alone."

I want to make people forget for a few hours that what we're doing up there is fake believe. I want them to come into the beauty shop with us and know exactly what we're feeling, exactly what our lives are like. I want to make them laugh and I want to cry with them because really, I'm with Truvy- no one cries in my presence alone.

Well. Another Sunday. It has been fine, despite the trashyness which I have witnessed and the ignorance too.

Mr. Moon is on the mend and tomorrow I'll be going back up to Thomasville with Kathleen and I hope to god that her platelets are fine and she can get her chemotherapy.
There will be clean sheets on the bed here and tomorrow, while we are together, we will leak hearts.

That's what women do. In real life and in this play.

I am so lucky. And I do not doubt that for a moment.

Amen.

19 comments:

  1. God I wish I could see this production! there is something about women, They are special in so many ways, too many to count, I don't know many that would argue with you on that. This has been a blessed experience for you, I can feel it. I am so very glad.

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  2. how i wish i could sit in that audience with my heart leaking joy at what you are accomplishing up on that stage. I am so glad this experience is feeding your soul, and yes, women feed our souls, and we could not survive without the love of women. this post just sings.

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  3. I wish someone could film this performance so we could all be in the audience!

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  4. Yes. Please have someone film this performance so that we can all watch it. Please? You can have someone film it and then sell the DVDs or something to raise money for the Opera House.

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  5. I wanna see too!

    I'd buy a DVD and leak my eyes and my heart right along with you

    xoxoxo

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  6. oh truvy,

    i could just run into your arms right now.
    i love that you give yourself so fully...to whatever or whom ever is right in front of you.
    someday. some day i am going to be sure and place myself in your path, and i know the world is going to SPIN
    faster just knowing we are finally together.

    love love love
    you.

    xoxoxoxoxox,
    rebecca

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  7. I just finished reading Twelve Weeks of Spring.
    A tribe of women ( and a few men) coming together to help a woman die at home , by June Callwood. Non-fiction. I thought of you . Of all us.

    love

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  8. love the way you described all this. you have no idea how badly i want to fly down and see this play.
    I wish FC would tape it for us all!

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  9. Thank goodness for women, without them there would never be clean sheets, or comfort food, or anything else that mattered - for that matter...
    Glad Mr. Moon is on the mend!

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  10. I sure wish I lived near you so I could go see the play. The movie ranks up there as close to number #1 as possible with my daughters and I. Could watch it over and over and cry buckets, yes we can.

    That term of 'leaking hearts'....pure. Love that.

    I understand what you are saying about women...totally.

    Women need women to keep us sane, to keep us moving forward as we grow up, to hold us when we need support. Our men can do much but there is an inner link we women have to each other that is different. Thinking...on this.

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  11. I wish I could have that with more women. I so want that. And I feel a little incapable of it. Maybe it comes from always being told that women are horrible and bitches and you should hate them and I should have had sons - by my mother. Ehm, may have something to do with it. I love women now, am in awe and want to have girlfriends, but I'm a bit scared to dive in there and make it happen. While I desperately want to, need to. I have managed with a few very good friends and my sister now and it's the best feeling in the world. I hope my daughter will have it easier.

    Ms. Moon - do you know that you are a healing influence in my life? I hope you do, because you so are.

    I wish I could come and see you in that play. It sounds so beautiful already.

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  12. I sure do like them, although at times I admit that I don't understand some. I never liked how some women talk about each other or are nosy. But then I am sure there are men who do that as well. We do have different wiring.

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  13. DTG- It's going to be far better than the play Natasha was in. I promise you.

    Amber Elise- It has been. It is. You're right.

    Angella- You are a woman who is so glad to be a woman. I recognize that and cherish it in you. I wish we lived close enough to leak hearts in person.

    Jean- Yes. I give you an Amen back.

    A- I'm going to work on that one.

    Elizabeth- Now there's a thought. But I'm going to try and get it up on Youtube for free.

    Stephanie- You and me both.

    Michelle- We'll make it work. I promise. (Oh dang.)

    Ms. Fleur- You'll be able to see it live.

    rebecca- Your lips to god's ears.

    deb- I need to read this.

    Bethany- Me too although I would never ask him.

    tiffany- Sheets wouldn't have even been invented without women.

    Ellen- Yes. We love our men but our women keep us sane. And loved.

    Mwa- Oh sweet Mama. Thank-you.

    Syd- Yes. We do have different wiring. Without a doubt.

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  14. A truer word has never been blogged.

    Love you Moon.

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  15. What a fantastic, articulate post. Just... thank you. I've linked on my own blog because I wanted my women friends to read your amazing, warm words.

    Amen, indeed.

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