seshat's blog post - Sensitivity

I used to be able to watch the most emotional movies without batting an eye. I remember going to see Titanic at the cinema, thinking how pathetic all those crying girls were at the end of the movie. Somewhere along the way, I guess I grew a heart I still usually don't tear up at sad movies, but I find I'm now extremely sensitive to real emotions on television.

A recent example: I was watching the Antiques Roadshow, one of my favorite shows, and they turn to a young woman who has brought two stuffed toys with her, dating from the thirties. Usually toys don't interest me a lot, but this Mickey and Minnie Mouse had a special story. They had been in a pillow case since the 1930's, not seeing the light of day until that Antiques Roadshow. They had belonged to a young boy, who had died of rheumatoid fever at the age of 11, and the stuffed toys had been put away in the pillow case he had died on by his parents and never taken out again. The monetary value of the toys was quite significant, undoubtedly helped by the fact that they hadn't been handled in 75 years, but the story... The story brought tears to my eyes.