One last thought on my trip to Wyoming that my account would be incomplete with out, a rememberence of those I met.
A gay friend of mine I showed my pictures to said: "What were women doing there? Were they lesbians?" Well I had no indication they were, but I though it was great to have them along. It was such a good group, gay and straight, male and female, from all walks of life, with many things in common besides our ability to tear up to the opening strains of "Wings".
Judy and Joe who organized the weekend and worked to keep it going, skiiguy who grew up on a ranch and could explain things to us like the difference betwixt a Donkey and a Mule, why cattlemen and sheephearders don't get along, branding and '55 Caddilacs. The straight couple from Colorado who kept us laughing, kept us warm with a truck load of wood. Their campsite became a haven on the mountain every evening, with a canopy of stars you'll just have to see for yourself to believe. And to "Joe the Second", thank you for the music, for the lyrics to the whole sound track. Singing "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" by the fire was wonderful. Thank you also for sharing your own lyrics to "Wings". They are so beautiful, so complete and accurate. I have been singing it to meself ever since.
Thank you Wayne, for wanting to dance with me. I no longer needed a spinal transplant after that adjustment you gave me.
The conversations we had, the emotion we shared, the insights. I was flored by some of the ideas I heard. There was a school of thought presented that BBM followed the tale of the Christ, that Jack was sent as Ennis's salvation and that he had to die for Ennis to become himself. The comparison of Mrs. Twist to the Mary the Virgin, comforting Ennis as Mary comforted the disciples.
This is the filter I watched BBM thru on Saturday night, on an amazing set up. skiiguy and his partner set up a generator behind an outhouse, ran the cord to the TV and boom box and we watch the DVD in the cold, I think it was probably 42 degrees F when we finished. Had we thought we could have set it up in the parking lot and had our own drive in. Jack gets out, kicks his truck and looks at Ennis and thinks: "There he is, the one I was sent for".
I lost count of the "F" word at about 20.
There was the thought that "The Maker Makes" being the song Jack has in his heart for Ennis, "doggies" there meaning a calf that has lost its mother.
mouk had also told us a strange thing: when she saw the film in Europe, some critter runs by the door as the camera pans from Alma scrubbing clothes to Ennis unloading the horses and the radio announcer talks of pushing that buggy down the aisle. She told us there was a thread about it on the French BBM Board. We watched for the critter but it did not appear. Perhaps the Europeans got a slightly different version that the one I saw?
I had wondered aloud to someone that if Ang Lee had picked John Malcovich and Steve Bushemi to play Ennis and Jack, would it be the same movie. Probably not. The impression we got from reading the story was that Proulx's Ennis and Jack were not nearly as pretty and Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. And while they are easy on the eyes, it is the characters they represent I mourn for.
I will never forget these people as long as I live. They have enriched my life, and I pray blessings for all of them. I pray blessings also for Pat Matheny and Charlie Hayden whose 1996 CD "Beyond the Missouri Sky" features the track "Spiritual" that Annie Proulx says she listed to repeatedly as she wrote the sceen of the "drousy embrace" ("your sleeping on your feet like a horse") If you've never heard it, you can get a copy from amazon. The words, by Josh Hayden bear reading:
"Jesus, I don't want to die alone
Jesus, oh Jesus, I don't want to die alone
My love wasn't true
Now all I have is you
Jesus, oh Jesus, I don't want to die alone.
Jesus, if you hear my last breath
Don't leave me here
Left to die a lonely death
I know I have sinned
But Lord I'm suffering
Jesus, oh Jesus, if you hear
My last breath.
All my troubles
All my pain
Will leave me
Once again
Once again"
Next year: ALBERTA.