Compassion

I am known in my family for being a big cry baby. I am a Hallmark commercial crier. If a sappy commerical comes on instead of watching the TV my family will pivot on a dime to see my reaction and they are rarely disappointed. Big fat crocodile tears will fall from my eyes at the drop of a hat. Last night we were watching the dark comedy Sunshine Cleaning which was also a 2008 Sundance Film festival hit. Have you seen it? If not, do. It's great! Alan Arkin, Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, even Adams' son played by Jason Spevak aren't playing parts they are real people. It's basically about a single mother, Rose Lorkowski, who is having an affair with a married man who happens to be a cop. She's in a dead end job trying to eke out a living when the cop tells her that crime scene clean up is a very lucrative business. Rose decides to give it a try with her sister Norah(Blunt). They go into homes where people have committed crimes or have "offed" themselves and make it all nice and new. The scene that really had me going last night was when Rose and Norah show up on a scene and there is an distraught elderly woman waiting on the porch with the keys to the house in her hand. She tells them where the house the area is that needs to be cleaned and very uncomfortably asks if they want her to show them. They say they'll find it and Norah takes the cleaning materials in the house. Relieved that she doesn't have to go inside, the woman tells Rose that her son-in-law is coming to take her to Howard Johnson's for lunch. Rose sees her anguish and pain and asks her if she wants company while she waits. They sit down there on the porch, the woman looking down completely heartbroken and Rose reaches over and puts her hand over the woman's hands. The woman then puts one of her hands ontop of Rose's. I'm welling up as I write this. Compassion...that's what it is that gets me everytime. When I see those commercials or movies and I cry more often than not that's what it is...it's so touching to see compassion. In movies, commercials and even yes...life.