Communication

       I had the privilege of watching the movie Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler and Jada Pickett Smith. I had never seen it before or even heard of it, so first I watched about half of it with the sound off. I was able to read the non verbal communication and see the tone and the facial expressions that let me see if they were worried  stressed, sad, angry , depressed.I was able to tell that they were struggling to communicate, but without the words I was not able to understand why. First off, I heard the music as it introduced the beginning scene of the movie and this penetrated my heart ,set the mood, and let me truly feel the sadness that surrounded this movie. It is  about a man who lost his three daughters and wife who were in the plane that crashed into the Twin Towers. He did not want to remember this devastating event in his life and tried every way possible to block it out and everyone associated with it. Without the sound you could see the pain in each characters faces as they tried to communicate with each other and be listened too.You could sense the distance between the husband and wife as well as his mother and his father.When the sound was release, the movie really came alive. Now  I could understand the plot, the humor, and the details. Why they were angry and what their motives were and the strong need for communication between all of the characters and that this means being a good listeners.

  This was an amazing movie , without the words you could not understand  the depth of the feeling and emotions that were running throughout the movie. This lets me see that I can only understand so much from non verbal communication, and that I need to be a good listener in order to understand the heart that is behind the facial expressions. We work really hard at blocking out people from our lives, yet we want to be heard. Being good communicators of our feelings is essential for our emotional well being.  

   If I had been watching a show I know well I would understand the relationship between the characters and their sense of humor and interpersonal relationships.  I could easily draw conclusions and make assumptions. In this case I could get the just of everyone's character but could not get the humor or depth of their emotions.

     This is great movie that truly highlights the the importance of being able to communicate feelings.