BBM is 3 Years Old This Month. How Are You Doing, Friends?

[luigival]

Luigi, I didn't realize you were in NYC then.  Too bad I didn't know you yet! 

I was Meryl. Detailed that story in one of my original threads, as I happened to be in NYC on those days (to this day I still wonder whether I actually decided to go to NYC for seeing BBM, and I live in Italy... and I believe that was really the major inspiration for this short trip).

Hooked ever since then - even earlier I'd say, as the short story had already taken me two months earlier - and still feeling the same today anytime I happen to think of it.

BBM has given me a better understanding of life, and much more self-confidence on myself, as well as confirming my being on the right track for having always been coherent.

Luigi

they were (and always will be) two friends of mine

[Meryl]

I was Meryl. Detailed that story in one of my original threads, as I happened to be in NYC on those days (to this day I still wonder whether I actually decided to go to NYC for seeing BBM, and I live in Italy... and I believe that was really the major inspiration for this short trip).

I think I do remember your speaking of it before.  Anyway, when you get back to NYC, you know who to call! 

Meryl

[Katie77]

Is it only 3 years?.....Well its actually a few months short of three years for me since I saw the movie.

It is like having a child...one cant remember what life was like before it.

I guess for most of us, we had some affinity for Brokeback in our lives, long before their was a story written or a movie made about it, and being able to visualise it up on the screen, more or less brought our own story out into the open.

Then when we found Bettermost (or other forums) we then made the remarkable discovery that we were not alone. And from the bond of common feelings and experinces we formed friendships that have crossed miles of roads and oceans.

How can it be described?......there are not enough words to do so, but it is in our soul forever.

How fortunate we all are, to have made this journey.

[Monika]

How fortunate we all are, to have made this journey.

Indeed

[Ellemeno]

Wow, Merly, great, great post, and everyone's stories are so good to read. 

I found BBM in Oct 2005.  That's chronicled elsewhere.  And so have the various amazing opportunities I've had to be with Brokies and see BBM, and even Heath and Diana and others.  That was a gay ol' time with lots of motion.  I haven't traveled to Brokieventures this year (though some came to me!).  Now it's become more about having BetterMost as a communal home that we are growing and furnishing together.  It's more about stability.

I still delight in a good Brokieism as much as ever, in fact more so, because it's more unexpected, more precious, and more imbued with a sense of richness from previous uses. 

When I think of the many precious amazing Brokies I am continuing to get to know, I feel honored and happy and hopeful.  I PMed with a Brokie tonight whom I've known obliquely for the past three years, been on many a thread together, but tonight we got to know each other one on one a bit.  Still so many good Brokies.

In the near future, I'd like to do another chat where we watch BBM together, and invite members of all the other Brokie forums to join us.  I don't picture traveling for a Brokie pilgrimage this coming year, though I would love to have the opportunity to visit Brokie friends.  I can't believe how beautiful you Buds are.

I'm in that Hayride from Hell photo at the beginning of the thread, I've got on a dark pink shirt, sitting between Rayn and RouxB, and am nearly totally obscured, but remember it well.  I think I may have been the one who named it. 

[MountainMan]

fyi, hbo is showing bbm right now - the day after Jake's bday......hmmm

[optom3]

I have not been here for 3 years,but the time I have, has been  the most rewarding in my life(family aside)

It all seemed predetermined to me. I had just discovered that we could not renew our Visa for some time ,so we are landlocked. That of course means I cannot see my family.Heath passed my oldest became full blown Bipolar, my husband was robbed at gunpoint,the business is just hanging on by a thread.

I look back at my posts in wonder and  amazement that I am still here.
I have gained so much from Bettermost, it is hard to articulate it all. Obviously, there is my new bestest friend Mandy. Then there is this vast school of, wisdom, and care, all unconditional.
You need to know something, a Brokie somewhere will have the answer, a shoulder to cry on, ditto,you can't face another day, oh yes you can, because people here REALLY care and will lift you up. My husband thought I had lost the plot, when he initially heard me talking about Bettermost.He no longer thinks that, he sees that on many an occasion, I find just what I need right here.Peace, solace, laughter and love.

I think of it as the most wonderful extended family, (minus the batty old aunt you can't stand) coupled with the wisdom of an Oxford don and the infinite love a mother for her children.

I maybe have not come a long way, in terms of development.I have however survived more than I would have dreamt plausible, courtesy of BBM, and Bettermost !!!

[Front-Ranger]

fyi, hbo is showing bbm right now - the day after Jake's bday......hmmm

Really? BBM on HBO? Is this for the first time??!

[MountainMan]

Really? BBM on HBO? Is this for the first time??!

no its been on before I think.....google it. I just was up and it was on....and evidently it was the day after JG's bday. I guess it says a lot that its never on except for once in a blue moon at 4 am....

[YaadPyar]

Thanks for pointing me to this thread, Meryl.  I watched BBM again on Christmas Eve, exactly 3 years to the day from my first, life-changing viewing.  And I laughed through so much of it, 'cause every line, every scene reminded me of some cartoon or quip or scene that we had made into our own.  The thread on IMdB (can't remember the name) that made everything so funny!

And I was amazed too that the movie was so impeccable upon viewing so much later.  Every word, every shot, every minute tight and meaningful, exposing each character more deeply and forwarding the story powerfully and effortlessly.

In the scene where Ennis is running off to another fishing trip with Jack, and Alma's sitting smoking at the kitchen table, wrestling with her feelings...the look in her eyes after he runs out the door having almost forgotten his creel case, is so powerful, so telling, such a quiet and pviotal moment. 

BBM changed my life, but I could also say I saw it at a moment where I wanted my life to change.  There was change in the air, looming on the horizon, and BBM pointed the way for me to see that the change required was in the silent internal spaces in my soul.

I'm not Ennis, and I'm definitely not Jack, but I could see my own limitations in each, and knew I did not want to stay stuck by those limitations, that I didn't want to end up either figuratively dead or stuck in a dead-end place.  BBM helped me see how much I wanted to embrace life on my own terms.

And the re-viewing recently was a complete affirmation of all of that.  I am not the same, I am not living the same life, and I know BBM showed me the cracks in the foundation of a life I had built but couldn't sustain. 

I knew something had fundamentally shifted inside of me, and over the past 3 years, I have embraced that original pull to change and given it room to grow inside of me.  It's still in process, no doubt, but now I can watch the movie, and appreciate the story and it's powerful sorrow without feeling that I'm condemned to living my life the same way.

Thanks so much to each one for the wonderful friendship that I found here.  Certainly some craziness and some drama, but mostly wonderful friendship!