Entry for WYL Contest: Letter to Christopher James Nielson

Here is the entry from Sreemoyee Basu for Write Your Love Contest.

The letter is addressed to Christopher James Nielson from the movie ‘What Dreams May Come’.

The Letter

Dear Christopher,

I have been in love with you from the first day I saw you and heard your tale of love. There is a voice inside me that corresponds to every word of yours making me realize that what you said is soulfully true. It might not make much sense to the mind, but the heart knows that it is being recognized in every action of love that you performed. While your tale unraveled I imagined that all that you did, you did for me. After all, it was you who said, “What is true in our minds is true”; and I believe you.

I learn from you, Chris, not because I take what you say and imbibe it, but because I find your words resonating within me. The foremost thing that you have taught me is the importance of looking into someone’s eyes and really seeing him; of knowing that fear, denial, insecurities are a shell which the real person exists beneath and beyond. I admire you for not belittling my inability to see clearly, instead for your efforts to stand with me and see through my eyes.  I love you for trying to find ‘new ways to love me, to help me and to keep us together always’. I love you for the fight that you put up with yourself to be with me; when your instinct was to not give up, you did so to be with me. When you were safe and untouched by grief and denial and had the option of moving on, you chose to adopt my reality so that I wouldn’t be left alone.

You made me realize that sometimes, when you win because that is what you have been trained to do, you are actually losing out on what your inner voice wants you to do; and when people love the way you do, they transcend the boundaries that they have set for themselves and realize that happiness lies in making the impossible, possible.  This is what I love most about you, the fact that you do not lie to me about happiness. You do not tell me that it is easily mine to have and to keep and are not offended when I turn away from it; you truly realize that for some people to whom life has been unkind, happiness is a struggle and to such people the only thing that matters most, is knowing that they are not alone.

I love you Chris because even though you have never known me, I feel that you do.  You know all that is good in people and hence you know the good in me too. The beauty of a person like you is that you can relate one’s faults to one’s strengths making them seem natural and hence not faults at all. When I look at myself the way I know you would have seen me, I feel beautiful.  It is because of you that I know that things like love and beauty reach people beyond boundaries and connect their souls. It is because of you, darling, that I believe in soulmates.

Yours Soulfully,
Sreemoyee.

End of the Letter

About the character: Christopher James Nielson is the protagonist of the1998 film, ‘What Dreams May Come’, directed by Vincent Ward. Most of the film speaks of Chris’ experiences after his death, relating them to  the people and situations from when he was still alive.

There are times when I refer to things that he does for me. This is because as mentioned in the letter, I put myself in place of the female protagonist.

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