overprocessing

Have you ever seen the Movie "My Girl?" It was made before McCauley's ego got the better of him. A corny but poignant story of a little girl lost. I've seen it several times and every single time my eyes leak, my heart cracks and sadnees creeps in on its silent deadly little feet.
My granddotter (7 almost 8) came for a sleepover tonight and brought two movies, "My Girl" and "Little Mermaid 2". She wanted to watch My Girl, and I was all for Little Mermaid 2. I didn't want to watch My Girl, actually I just did not want to ride the emotional roller coaster but there was simply no swaying her. She loves that movie and it doesn't make her cry. I don't get it.
At the age of 7 she would rather watch a story about an 11 year old girl (Veda) whose mom died just 2 days after she was born and is afraid that she is the one who killed her, who lives with her dad the mortician who prepares dead people in the basement and is more comfortable with them than live people, her grandma whose mind has wandered off alone and belts out 30s torch songs randomly, whose crush on her teacher is revealed and immediately destroyed on the same day her best friend is buried, when the last thing she did to her best friend was push him down and tell him off because she just got her first period...
Though it does end fairly well it amazes me that themes of loss and fear engage my granddotter so. After I sat down and thought about it, I realized that she cannot possibly see what I do in the movie as she does not have MY life experience, she's only 7. What she probably sees is best friends, bike rides and tree climbing, a family that cares and a new mom for Veda. Then maybe she sees a little about how to deal with loss and that death is a part of life.
So I asked her this morning what it was about the movie that she loved so much.

Direct quote, "Veda is so cool and she lives in a house with her dead mother and grandma who sings any time she feels like it."

My lesson in over processing relates to the difference between innocence and experience and how as adults we just make things too complicated.