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Shouting at the Sky
Troubled Teens and the Promise of the Wild
By Gary Ferguson
Near the end of the show Jonathan, Susan and I stand together in a field of sage, a fresh, earth-scented wind fingering the grasses at our feet. For a long time we're quiet. Then Jonathan begins telling about his life as a professional dancer in Montreal. When Susan asks if he's ever hurt himself, he offers a curious, even outrageous response, telling her how over the years he's learned to equate gravity with love. "Every trip, every stumble, I remind myself that I'm merely falling into the arms of the earth. And so falling is no longer a scary thing." Susan looks a little confused, suspicious at first, as if he might be pulling her leg, but when it's clear he's not, she seems amused, content to roll the thought around in her head for a while, savor it. Watching her, I can't help but think of the incredible transition she's made in the past 72 hours. From the halls of a suicide ward with her little yellow rule book, kept from having even her tape player lest she decide to strangle herself with the cord, staring out through the screens of an old smoker's lounge. And now, watching rainbows firing across some of the biggest skies in America, sleeping under a tree in the dirt, having someone tell her that when gravity is love there's no danger in falling.
Back to Part One.
