Briefly Overwhelmed
Okay. I found myself in a really dark place mentally after watching a very dark satirical movie at 2 am this past week that was billed as a comedy but instead made my head and heart hurt. That dark place was exacerbated by the fact that with shooting after shooting and disaster after disaster I find myself amazed at how quickly we tip past the point of working for change and instead go back to our regular lives - unless we were directly affected by the events.
It did seem for a while that we were going to see some social change. There were sit-ins by senators to make changes in gun laws and to promote dialogue. Racial issues were coming to the fore in national conversation. But then another shooting happened. Another person got killed. Another mass shooting. Another insightful and carefully thought out sound bite from the wise and selfless persons running for president. And before we know it, we have moved on. It is as if we remain involved until our short attention span snaps and we find ourselves no longer interested. Trying to keep something alive in the consciousness of the people becomes passe. Maybe that's why we forget the lies of our political hopefuls. We just can't keep track and we move on.
Then I saw the promotional video for Quantico season 2 in which the First Lady (fictional one, not real) gets killed - or so it seemed - by being beheaded by terrorists. All I could think of was the idea that we are keeping fear alive by making it profitable. I'm no prude (though I guess this might sound like it these days), but sometimes entertainment shouldn't be on the backs of horrible truth such as the deaths of so many at the hands of brutal extremists.
But that thinking was all part of the larger dark place of the whole week. And I didn't know what to say about it. I had actually thought about writing about the letter I got from the FLDS president Warren Jeffs (which was not specifically to me, but was oddly entertaining none the less) or a thought or two about ghost hunting television shows. I may get to both of those in the coming weeks.
The reality of it, though, is that sometimes the darkness can seem so oppressive and present that hope can seem lost. I don't believe all hope is lost, but sometimes a stack of events, movies, television news and shows can just push you to think that it's all over but the shooting and that we are all circling the drain.
Perhaps, though, someone will make a television show out of that last point and we will all forget and move on.
It did seem for a while that we were going to see some social change. There were sit-ins by senators to make changes in gun laws and to promote dialogue. Racial issues were coming to the fore in national conversation. But then another shooting happened. Another person got killed. Another mass shooting. Another insightful and carefully thought out sound bite from the wise and selfless persons running for president. And before we know it, we have moved on. It is as if we remain involved until our short attention span snaps and we find ourselves no longer interested. Trying to keep something alive in the consciousness of the people becomes passe. Maybe that's why we forget the lies of our political hopefuls. We just can't keep track and we move on.
Then I saw the promotional video for Quantico season 2 in which the First Lady (fictional one, not real) gets killed - or so it seemed - by being beheaded by terrorists. All I could think of was the idea that we are keeping fear alive by making it profitable. I'm no prude (though I guess this might sound like it these days), but sometimes entertainment shouldn't be on the backs of horrible truth such as the deaths of so many at the hands of brutal extremists.
But that thinking was all part of the larger dark place of the whole week. And I didn't know what to say about it. I had actually thought about writing about the letter I got from the FLDS president Warren Jeffs (which was not specifically to me, but was oddly entertaining none the less) or a thought or two about ghost hunting television shows. I may get to both of those in the coming weeks.
The reality of it, though, is that sometimes the darkness can seem so oppressive and present that hope can seem lost. I don't believe all hope is lost, but sometimes a stack of events, movies, television news and shows can just push you to think that it's all over but the shooting and that we are all circling the drain.
Perhaps, though, someone will make a television show out of that last point and we will all forget and move on.
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