Jim Holland

Catharsis Jim Holland

Ca-thar-sis (ke thär sis) n. ...the purifying of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions... Does every cloud actually have a silver lining if we will only look for it? Growing up as a boy, Jack Elliott had a wonderful relationship with his father. It all went sour, though, when Jack was ten. Two things of monumental importance happened at that point which would have a devastating effect on his life and leave him with a bitterness towards his father which would stretch uninterrupted over the next twenty years. When his father suffers a massive life threatening stroke, however, Jack is forced to re-examine those feelings of angry animosity. If his father should die, would it feel like a liberating sensation or a total tragedy? His father survives, but is partially paralyzed and in need of extensive rehabilitation therapy if he is to be able to attain anything close to full recovery. And so Jack returns home after a nine year absence in order to assist in this undertaking and maybe, just maybe, find a way as well to heal the bitter rift that has kept them so estranged for so terribly long. Both endeavors will require all the effort the two men can muster. And in the end only one of those endeavors will be successful.