I watched this movie on a Delta flight a few months ago. It is an incredible movie that I felt had some ties to a faith transition that I wanted to discuss. This is related to something I’m still trying to work through in my own transition, one of the things I still struggle with right now.
Do not read below this line if you don’t want any movie spoilers.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For those who have seen the movie (or those that don’t care about these spoilers), let me just summarize the basic beginning plot. A mother and her son are trapped in a room by someone that kidnapped the mother long ago and abuses her. The son is born as a result of the sexual abuse. The room has one small skylight in the ceiling. Everything is done in the one room, eating, sleeping, bathing, TV, etc. The room is actually just a shed in the backyard of the abuser’s home.
The mother teaches her son that everything within room is real, and many of the things he sees on TV are not real, not trees, or the sea, and that their food comes from the TV magically. That there is just room and outer space. She does this probably to protect him and she says because he was too young to understand the truth. The abuser starts to have financial issues and the mother finally decides that it might be time for the boy to escape, so she begins to tell him that she had been lying to him about the room. That the things she said were not real are actually real, that dogs and trees are real. The boy becomes angry and doesn’t believe her, at least at first.
This is the part I wanted to talk about. When I watched that part, I felt like I might be like the mother because I’ve been lying to our kids about the church (the room), in order to protect them from the "world". I now know better. I want our kids to know what I now believe. I don’t want to have to tell them later and get the angry reaction from them. They would have every right to be angry, because I had essentially lied to them. I’m torn about with what to do. DW doesn’t want me to say anything.
Am I trying to protect my kids like the mother in the room or am I protecting DW and/or myself? At what point are they old enough to know what I believe now? How do I even go about saying anything that doesn’t upset DW?
By the way, the part when the boy escapes in the back of the truck was amazing. It made me feel the spirit.
