In 2018 I worked on some of the social campaigns for Manchester by the Sea. It’s probably in my top three of projects I’ve been proud to have worked on because it taught me a lot.
This past month, I spoke with Casey Affleck, while covering the Zurich Film Festival green Carpet, and asked him about what healing looks like for someone watching that film, who carries grief with them instead of it being something they let go of.
He referenced the answer lies somewhere in a Cormac McCarthy quote that he read recently:
“Rage is only for what you believe can be fixed. All the rest is grief.”
In my time, the hard way, I’ve learned that grief comes in many forms. The least obvious is the quiet grief that someone carries for the different versions of their life they could’ve lived, if things and opportunities turned out a certain way, if someone became a larger part of your life or outcomes lined up the way you envisioned.
That kind of grief is harder to let go of. I’ve been thinking about that in my transition to LA lately. It’s the kind that a move across a country can’t fix as much as you believed it would. The kind where even though people would only dream of the opportunities you’re in, don’t fill those quiet holes that have been keeping you up at night.
Sure, friends and family and experiences can become a life raft, but eventually, we’ll become untethered and have to navigate those seas on our own.