Blog entry:Of Dolls and Men

Cristina Quinn, World Compass Cristina Quinn is a Boston, MA-based World Compass Staff Member and Blogger. ...

Imagine waking up from a coma, and having all of your memory erased. The previous life you had built for yourself is completely wiped clean, and all that you have to put the pieces back together are photos, stories from family and friends, journals that illustrate your painful addiction to alcohol, and a closet full of women's shoes. That's what happened to Mark Hogancamp after being beaten into a coma outside of a bar by a bunch of men who found out that he enjoyed cross dressing from time to time. 

Suffering from brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder after the nearly fatal beating, Mark became a different man. And what is a man with no memory to do with himself? Start over. In Mark's case, he began a new life in the tiny, safe world of Marwencol. Marwencol, a fictional town in Belgium, is run by an army of women. These women, who are made up of Barbies and action figures, protect Mark from the evils of man, and are his saving grace. I can't relate the subtleties of Mark's story as well as the film can, nor can I cover as much ground as is covered in this amazing article from the New York Times. I strongly encourage you to stop reading this and start reading that, so that you can get to work immediately on clearing out your Sunday afternoon.

But if you are still reading this, before you tune in to watch Marwencol this Sunday, think about what you would do if you were left to your own devices to heal yourself from something as traumatic as the assault against Mark Hogancamp. It's difficult to imagine being brain-damaged and debilitated by post-traumatic stress to the extent that Hogancamp is, but we all know what comforts us--from the mundane slurping of chicken noodle soup to the more lofty acts of prayer or meditation. But dig deeper than that. When you are in tune with your vulnerabilities, but have no real frame of reference for who you once were, sometimes it's safe to start out small. In Hogancamp's case, that's what he did. And it looks like it's working.

Marwencol will air Sunday, May 1st at 12 pm.