To some degree or another, we all find ways to escape from reality. It's kind of like that Broadway musical, Stop The World, I Want To Get Off. I mean, not completely because that plot really has to do with a womanizer, of sorts. But the title alone suggests the idea of needing everything to be put on hold for just a moment. We need to pause our lives and find something to erase a disappointing thought, time of heartbreak, or maybe just a really bad day.
A lot of people use movies to get away. For two hours, we can sit in a dark theater and be completely absorbed in someone else's situation... or Leonardo DiCaprio's eyes? Maybe that's just me (and millions of other people I don't know). Outside the theater, something completely drastic could be happening, and we'd never know. Have you ever gone to a movie around 3:30 and walked out to an entirely dark sky? One that was bright and sunny when you bought your ticket? It's weird. It is, however, also a strange confirmation that life goes on while you take a little bit of time to forget it's there. I guess it's not that we necessarily need life to stop; we just need a break.
Me? Well, I have a few things. Sometimes, I find a scrapbook project that is all-consuming. I can't split it up over days or months, like a lot of scrappers do. Provided I have all the necessities, I will sit down for hours, surrounded by papers, pictures, and stickers. There's a good chance chronicling a year in the life may take me one day to complete.
I could also watch marathons of "Gilmore Girls" or "Beverly Hills: 90210." I could work on a crossword puzzle that I will never complete.
Yet, I would have to say that my most successful mode of escapism comes in the form of baking.
Give me the supplies - flour, sugar, butter - and I can leave my thoughts for hours. I don't need to like what I'm making; I don't even need to eat it. In a couple hour's time, I'll have something that smells great and hopefully tastes better. Yes, the process is for me. The methodical organization that goes into a proper result takes concentration and thought, everything that guarantees I won't, for a second, have to worry about what was bothering me before I turned on the mixer. But the result might be the very best part. Just as I love giving presents to people and waiting for their reactions, I equally enjoy someone smiling over a delicious dessert they wouldn't have had otherwise.
All this being said... I also write blog entries to get everything out. I have now sufficiently been taken away from my frosting for too long. Another day, another cupcake...
"Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones. And I will try to fix you."
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