by Alicia Rodenbeck Pre-Teens have a lot going on in their lives. They cope with…
Director’s Thoughts on Walk Two Moons
Where do we find hope when things are more than we can bear? How do we deal with pain, loss, abandonment, and grief? These are difficult questions, and the answers can be different for everyone.
Some lose themselves in entertainment to help drown out the pain and forget about it for a while. Some use humor to process what they are feeling. They make jokes about the situation until they just become numb and see it as nothing more than a punchline. Others just deny it. They create a reality in their
head where the situation causing the pain never existed. There are also those who take their pain and spend time with God. They pray, read the Word, and focus on their faith. They learn to see their pain and what has happened as part of the fabric of a greater story. Being able to accept difficulty and grow from it is the goal for these situations so it doesn’t become a looming weight on our hearts.
No matter what your method of dealing with pain and fear, it’s a hard situation to navigate as an adult who has had years of experience and understanding to rely on. What happens when it’s a kid trying to deal with these deep emotions. They don’t have the perspective or knowledge to help them so… what do they do?
It can go directions that we, as adults, could never expect. It can lead to narratives being created to make sense of the situation that are based off wild imagination. This can lead to a family friend becoming an international spy out to get the family, a giant squid monster that can shrink down and move through drains to steal the people we love, or an army of stuffed animals that come alive as we sleep and abduct us. Kids can come up with any number of stories to help them make sense of things.
This is where we find our young protagonists. Both dealing with fear and abandonment in their own ways. One leads to a road trip and one leads to… well, I’ll let you find out. I hope you enjoy this beautiful, and often funny, story of Sal and Phoebe as they work and grow through these big questions.
Jeff Salisbury, Director Walk Two Moons