Tags
Bravery, Death and dying, Golden Globes, Humor, Jodie Foster, Love, Parents, Perez Hilton is killing our brains
To the new readers, yes, that was a parody headline. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rush O’Huccabecks of the Corporate Media World didn’t begin their summation of the Golden Globes thus: Hollywood Elite Applauds Beautiful Blonde’s Decision To Become Man-Hating Lesbian Wishing For Her Mother’s Death.
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — e.e. cummings
For the unwashed, what I’m referring to is Jodie Foster’s Golden Globe speech in which she articulately and wittily Came Out. Not that it 1) was ever a concern and 2) was ever our business. It was, in all manner of the word, fodder for gossip. But publicly outed, she is now. It doesn’t diminish her work as an actress or director, or mother. As it should be, her message was received with the appropriate response to anyone breaking open a can of spinach and saying, “I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam.”
Perhaps, though, more touching for me was when she addressed her mother who suffers from dementia.
Mom, I know you’re inside those blue eyes somewhere and that there are so many things that you won’t understand tonight, but this is the only important one to take in: I love you, I love you, I love you. And I hope that if I say this three times, it will magically and perfectly enter into your soul, fill you with grace, and the joy of knowing that you did good in this life. You’re a great mom. Please take that with you when you’re finally OK to go.
These are similar words that I uttered to my dad in the days before he died from dementia. As children, we all have that consistent reminder that most of us are going to outlive our parents. Some moms and dads go quick and sudden. Others linger through disease and pain and change. Dying is lonely because only that person experiences it. The survivors, however, have to make do with the Loved One-Shaped Hole now in their reality. Saying goodbye is the hardest part of that process.
Tonight, Foster showed that there is great strength to be derived in being who you are and that people will support you for it. And she also showed great courage in saying goodbye to someone who made her the person she is now. As I saw it, it was beautiful, brave, and filled with humor, love, and appreciation.
Just how life should always be lived.
Wow. Thanks for this post. All I’ve heard is Jodie Foster being made fun of constantly and you are literally the first person who was able to find the good in her speech. I think I read that part of your post right so again, thanks. I love seeing the good in things
I’m sorry you had to go through dementia with your dad.
I’m always a champion for letting people being who they are, especially if being who they are doesn’t negatively affect another person or group. It’s a shame that things like who a person loves matters to anyone outside of the two people involved. I applaud Foster using a nationally televised broadcast to declare it, but I’m saddened that she felt she had to.
Thanks, by the way. Dad passed on in 2004 but the real him had died a few years before.
It is sad but I think that as a celebrity you lose a huge part of yourself so maybe that’s why she felt the need to do as she did.
And you’re welcome.
yeah, i bawled like a baby when she was talking to her mother. Jodie Foster has always been such a class act!!
Very true.