Living with depression can be tough. We know that. But add in serious health issues and what we know takes a back seat to something else . Some call it grit or backbone or toughening up. But I say it’s called courage. And having THAT can change our dialogue about what we’re dealing with, change our actions. It can be the thing we hang on to when things look bleakest.
I watched a documentary last night that touched my soul. It was “I Am: Celine Dion” – the film about Celine Dion and the incredbily tough disease she’s dealing with. Stiff Person Syndrome hits only 1 in one million people! There’s no cure, This illness has robbed her of her career, makes walking difficult, has changed her voice, often making it impossible for her to sing at all.
No one would blame her if she hid from the world, if she went to the dark side and fell into self-pity big time. Perhaps she did early on. But this film chronicles how she’s dealing with it NOW as well as revealing when she first noticed symptoms and how much it terrified her.
“I am” doesn’t gloss over anythnig. It shows her at her most vulnerable (I won’t spoil it by telling you what happened at that momenet – you definitely want to watch this and see for yourself). She talks about how hard it’s been and how hard it is. And she shows how incredibly strong willed she is. She refuses to give in or give up. Courage all over the place.
As she said in a recent interview: “The way I see it, I have two choices. Either I train like an athlete and work super hard, or I switch off and it’s over, I stay at home, listen to my songs, stand in front of my mirror and sing to myself.”
We all know Celine Dion’s amazing and versatile voice. We’ve listened to her CDs, watched her in person or on video. We’ve seen how dynamic, how amazingly ATHLETIC she can be. How THERE she is in performance. And now that’s gone, at least for now.
Watching her go through so much on camera – who of us would allow that? Wuold you let yourself be filmed giong through something traumatic and being so vulnerable, where you couldn’t hid anything? Would you or I have the courage to do that, knowing that doing so would make a difference for someone who would watch this film? Would that thought be enough for you to have the courage to say “yes, go ahead and film”? And there was that moment in the film.
My heart aches for what she’s going through, for what may have forever been lost to her. Yet she hasn’st given up. I know from my own personal history that if I was in that kind of place, facing what she is facing every day, I might muster up the courage to face it and say “let’s go forward”.
I urge everyone to watch this film. You’ll find it on Amazon Prime. Then, as you watch it, consider how YOU might handle something similar happening to you. Would you be able to tap into the courage you need? It’s something to think about. And it could be an important self-query.
Let me know what you discover.
