Matt Damon Went to Mars?
Ordinary Tuesdays
Observations from everyday life. The small moments, familiar places, chance conversations, and ordinary experiences that quietly reveal something larger.
On my last trip to Costa Rica, I watched The Martian during the five-hour flight.
The woman in the seat next to me leaned over and said, “That’s such a great movie!” Of course I agreed. I love this movie.
“That must have been a really difficult movie to make.”
“Absolutely,” I said.
“And can you imagine how long it must have taken to film it?”
“Absolutely.” Wait, what? Was she saying what I thought she was saying? Honestly, I thought I was being punked. But she kept going. She was serious. She thought Matt Damon et al. really went to Mars to film that movie.
At first I didn’t really know what to do with this. But people have always sat down and spilled their guts to me. Am I the recipient of confessional gravity? Who knows. But I let her finish. Smiled genuinely. And then carried on watching the movie.
But after that conversation, my mind was neither on Mars nor Costa Rica.
What does this reveal about us as people?
I remembered reading that psychologists have argued that human beings naturally make sense of their experiences by constructing stories. We don’t simply remember events—we organize them into coherent narratives that help us understand ourselves and the world around us.
Just FYI, those psychologists didn’t say plausible, just coherent.
Perhaps every now and then, a really good story becomes so immersive that we temporarily forget it’s fiction.
That’s why we cry in movies. Isn’t it? The emotion being portrayed feels that real, and hits that close to home.
We know.
But we also don’t know.
At least while we’re watching.
Perhaps the real magic of a good story is that, for a little while, it convinces us that Mars is a place Matt Damon once visited.
It was a long flight, so I still kept wondering, what else could explain her behaviour and my confessional gravity. I was in a premium seat, so the wine was free.
The woman probably got off the plane thinking, “That was a nice lady. We had such a pleasant chat.”
I got off with the seed of an essay about narrative, human cognition, confessional gravity…and why Matt Damon apparently spent eighteen months on Mars. And wondering…
What is it about some people that makes strangers feel safe enough to think out loud?
Related Reading
If you enjoy following ordinary observations that turn into bigger questions, you might also like:
- Extinction of the Ironing Board
- The Science of Why Retirement Feels So Strange
- The Story Gets Better Every Time
- Costa Rica in August: Why Green Season Might Be the Best Time to Visit
Research Note
The observations in this article are informed by ongoing reading and research in psychology, sociology, adult development, aging, friendship, purpose, identity, and life transitions. While these essays are observational rather than academic, many of the underlying ideas are grounded in established research.
- Howard, G. S. (1991). Culture Tales: A Narrative Approach to Thinking, Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Psychotherapy. American Psychologist.
- Narrative psychology defined. American Psychological Association.
- McAdams, D. P. (2006). The redemptive self: Stories Americans live by. Oxford University Press.
Cynthia Ross Tustin is the founder of I'm Thinking of Retiring, an online publication exploring the psychology, purpose, and everyday realities of life after work. A retired Fire Chief, former ICU and Emergency Room nurse, instructor, and policy writer, she combines lived experience, research, and a lifelong curiosity about human behaviour to write thoughtful essays on retirement, identity, purpose, friendship, and the ordinary moments that quietly reveal something larger. Through her Retirement Field Notes and Ordinary Tuesday series, she encourages readers to approach this next chapter with curiosity rather than certainty.
