"So Why Exactly Did You Cry in Mamma Mia?"

I have had a few people ask this question so thought I'd try to reveal exactly why that movie made me cry. Hmmm, well, here are some of my random thoughts about it....

I loved that it was a movie about people over 49 that depicted them as vibrant, fun-loving human beings that have loving hearts. They are still, amazingly enough, full of passion and desire, and a need for a relationship in spite of the losses they have experienced in life. I loved that Meryl Streep's character was still filled with love and hope after being without the person she loved for 20 years. I thought it said a lot about the nature of the human heart's ability to go on dreaming dreams even when things have not always gone your way.

I love the Dancing Queens scenes where women of all shapes, sizes and degrees of physical beauty as the culture defines it, were celebrated. They were all beautiful, young and old just because they were women! There were no stereotypes of what beauty is, they were just beautiful because they were themselves. So tears.

I love the carefree manner in which they were rejoicing in and remembering some of the feelings they had had when they were 17 and dancing queens. I could actually remember feeling that way at 17 and some of my tears were about just letting that carefree spirit I felt then~ slip away. It just reminded me that we have forgotten how to play and I missed that feeling in my life. Nostalgia ~ So more tears.

There's Nothing Like the Reunion of Old Friends

I loved the song and scenes of "Slipping Through My Fingers" because it was so like I feel about our beautiful daughters and (of course our son) and the fact that sometimes I mourn the loss of their childhood and miss them so much. You try to keep a light heart about them growing up and going away but sometimes it just doesn't seem possible that that part of your life has slipped through your fingers and is over and that things will never be the same again. So tears...lots of them (maybe even gulping sobs where you are glad the surround sound of the theatre is very, very loud).


The Winner Takes it All...Everyone probably relates to this song on some level. I loved the dramatic way in which it was used in the story and the amazing performance of Meryl Streep. Don't you relate to that line..."I don't want to talk~ because it makes me feel bad?" Sometimes you just feel that way about things that have happened in your life. Again tears. You have climbed the mountain but sometimes you just feel tired, weary and worn out. I loved the visuals of her escaping the pain and running up the mountain with the red scarf. To me it symbolized that in spite of her trials and discouragements she could still move forward with an unexplained passion for living and loving.

And lastly, I loved Meryl Streep and the way she has magnified her talents and given so much to women in general, just by being herself and working hard to perfect her craft with style, grace and a lot of spunk. I love that throughout her career she her carefully chosen her roles so she didn't get type cast as a one dimensional woman.

So, I ask you~ who wants to go to Greece with me, put on an old house dress and a scarf, an apron and some clunky shoes, and ditch the bras and the make-up? Then we will skip down to the peer singing and dancing like queens, cannonball into the water and laugh our heads off!