So Was Red

Ricardo Chavez once said, ~Your heart will fix itself but…It’s within your mind that you’ve trapped the memories, stored fragments of who hurt you, fragments that still pierce like shards of glass. Your mind is what will keep you awake at night, make you cry, and repeatedly tear you apart. You must persuade your mind to let go…because your heart already knows how to heal.~ If you think about it, when it comes to getting through the painful memories in regard to a past relationship a person can certainly feel like they're mentally imprisoned in their own version of Shawshank State Prison. For it’s a thought provoking situation indeed channeling one’s inner Andy Dufresne and finding yourself, in a sense, locked away in a mental rather than emotional prison while at the same time trying to figure out ways to escape from those painful past relationship memories previously mentioned.

As I said before, when it comes to the painful memories in regard to a past relationship a person can certainly feel like they're mentally imprisoned in their own version of Shawshank. Hey, we’ve all watched the movie and know by now how Andy mentally persevered by distracting himself with a number of projects like managing the prison finances, a persistent letter campaign, and advocating the funding for a prison library. Speaking of the prison library, he turned it into a vital hub for education and learning for fellow inmates, even starting a program to help them earn their GEDs. I think it’s safe to say when you’ve been incarcerated within your own mind you do your best in mentally distracting yourself and not end up being driven absolutely crazy by simply living your best life, especially if it’s with your best buds/gal pals representing Red, Heywood, Brooks, Floyd, Tommy etc.

Without a doubt, the character of Andy Dufresne was severely punished at least twice in the movie by being thrown into solitary confinement by Warden Norton. Although the first time was completely worth it, the second wasn’t and it nearly destroyed or should I say lost Andy’s sense of hope. Thinking about it further, there are times when getting through one’s mental incarceration you’ve thrown yourself into a type of dark, self imposed solitary confinement as punishment. Why? For the most part, it’s to keep from destroying yourself from looking back and reminiscing on all the fond relationship memories that unfortunately turned painful. Essentially, nobody wants to ever feel like they’re forever trapped in the solitary confinement of their own mind to the point where they’re unable to not only get out, but the hope they’ve held on to for so long will be destroyed/lost.

Let me ask this question regarding Shawshank Redemption, in your opinion what was the most impactful moment in the movie? If you answered Andy’s elaborate escape plan then you’d be correct. To be more specific, Andy’s miraculous crawl through 500 yards(length of 5 football fields) of shit and then dramatically ripping his shirt off in the rain knowing he was free in every sense of the word. Oftentimes, we have to take a risk and endure crawling through 500 yards of shit smelling memories of a past relationship until you’ve finally reached the freedom of feeling as well as being cleansed from the rain of true happiness located at the very end. In other words, an absolute metaphor for matters of a painful heart. What it primarily comes down to is not allowing the guy/girl in question to mentally live rent free in your head so much so you’re never going to truly escape and be free of him/her.

Someone once said, ~The hardest prison to escape is the one created by your own mind.~ In retrospect, for a number of people they felt like they’ve been serving a life sentence within their own mind without the possibility of parole because of a past relationship. Sadly, as much as you’re free to move on like Red and Brooks did, it was a struggle because even though you’ve owned up to the shackles of your mistakes, so to speak, it still feels like you’re wearing them if that makes any sense whatsoever. Ultimately, just forgive yourself knowing you’ll one day experience the feeling of freedom of true happiness raining down on you after all the relationship shit you’ve been through. In the end, there will come a point where you’ll reach the quintessential moment of freedom and instead of standing on a chair and sadly carving ‘Brooks was here’, you’ll happily carve the following three words: So Was Red