Does Anyone Remember King Lear?

Actually, it's okay, I went and looked it up. But for any of you Shakespeare afficionados, please feel free to jump in!

There are two books that I've read in my life that have made me cry. One was My Cat Saved My Life and the other was King Lear.

I read King Lear in my final year of high school and when I got to the end, I almost keeled over in huge, wrenching sobs. I mean, I really bawled. I didn't even know why. But something was triggered in my psyche, even if it wasn't apparent to me at the time.

This came up in my last therapy session after I had recently gone through a rough patch and was tearing up all over the place--not in the session but in days prior. My therapist was going to offer me a book to read and I laughed in her face. I haven't been able to read a book cover to cover in a while. Then I recanted and said, no, that wasn't entirely true. Over the last couple of years, I have managed to read two. So perhaps there's hope for me yet?

We went back to the aspect of potential triggers and I said that more complex visual stimuli (i.e. movies with faces, voices of characters etc...) were more apt to set me off than words on a page. I guess I can detach more when I read? That's when we got into the issue of these two books and how they've been the only books that have ever made me cry.

King Lear piqued her interest. I was clueless as I had lost barely all retention of the plot. She suggested that I read it again after all of these years and see what I get out of it now as it may be "therapeutic" and "very interesting." She also said that I "reminded her of Cordelia."

Egad. When my therapist pulls something like that out in a session I sit up and take notice! I also wondered just how "therapeutic" it might be. After getting a quick refresher online I think I see some things that might have been potential triggers as my family is so completely fucked up.

When out with friends last night, one of them told me that she had some books for me. I coincidentally asked her if she had an extra copy of Lear. She said she had two so she'd gladly give me one. I told her all of the above and she just laughed and said I had King Lear written all over me.

Hmmm.