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| Nick Cage as "Everyone"!! |
There was a crisis on my block that resulted in the predicted suicide of a deeply troubled neighbor this past weekend, which points to the burdens our brothers and sisters around the world bear as they fight alcoholism, drug addiction, and serious brain disorders, often alone and without support. I know I did everything I could to help a neighbor in crisis, because I contacted the appropriate community programs and social services, and there'll definitely be more on that.
Some people raise their eyebrows about the kinds of media content I see, without realizing that it's my job to take on (and process) real-world narratives and situations that are portrayed by the actors playing these roles about some of the worst horrors of the world, like Nick Cage's portrayal of a suicidal drunk in "Leaving Las Vegas". It's become so well-known in our society that we actually refer to planned drinking deaths as "pulling a "Leaving Las Vegas'". When tragedies happen like they did this weekend, it makes me appreciate the people in our society who take on horror everyday, like the officer on scene who told me the bad news, working in service to a community that can sometimes barely watch a fictional movie or book without struggling over the events represented in its content.
As it happens with people who can't handle difficult events, a lot of people've been trained to "check out" mentally, aided and assisted in their delusional, consumer-driven fantasies by pop culture entertainment that churns out generically escapist fantasies, because some executives have studied people's vulnerable psychologies to sell you product through various media outlets, and you, my fragile-minded friend, are part of their target demo for disassociating from reality on the habitual.
Like any bad habit, compulsive addictive disorders are genetic. You have to have those genes to have a predisposition to addiction, and yet many people are afraid to confront the "negative" aspects of their lives, because they aren't sure they'll make it through to the other side of an issue correctly. "'Tuning out' while 'tuning in'" to difficulty is counterproductive in the minds of the most afflicted. Those of us who confront society's demons do not prefer "dark material". Nothing could be further from the truth for me. I actually like children's movies the best, but you wouldn't know that from my library list or web-surfing history, or that my favorite social media follows are cute doggies. It's ridiculously cheerful, but I've always cherished nature, animals, and children's literature.
You wouldn't know that from a scan of my library card or my Internet browser. Part of what makes me a publisher is my hard-working ability to rebound from stress that the layperson cannot, and in that way, I feel very close to the clergy, educators, social workers, and police officers who daily see atrocities that are screened from the general public. It's our duty and honor to serve you, though it is most certainly not an equivalent experience for most of you in my audience, and that can be a lonely burden to bear for people in vocational service, cut off from empathy and support as we often are, crisis after crisis. The Lord G-d has given us the gift of forbearance on this daily path we walk alone, unaided by those crutches made for you, the people we care for.
Like my other gifts, I accepted my almost freakish resilience many years ago, as the people around me can testify, almost aghast at my ability to persevere with an uncanny strength that I've only found among His Most Faithful, and probably genetic to me. Where would we be without our ability to move on, mes amis? And so, when my friends and acquaintances blush over me withstanding their petty abuses, sometimes I just laugh. Oh, girl, you have no idea what I been through. Women are asked to bear all of human life, as a life that can also be easily snuffed out just as quickly, and that ain't for everyone in this world, is it?
That's why, when the bitchy clerk at the checkout counter decides today is the day she's gonna give me the ole "stink eye", I'm almost glad she can fob off her psychological stress on a mother figure like me. I understand why people flock to movies to escape from their lives for a little while. I'm grateful for distractions, too. Perhaps that's why (even as we rant against it), we give so many awards and so much money to the people who tell the tough stories you can't find your way out of, like we do with gifted movie actors.
Sure, there are tons of bad actors in a world full of opportunists, cheats, and disastrous hangers-on, but on the days I write to you from an old public library computer on a time limit surrounded by His Most Afflicted, like the ripe homeless woman sitting next to me "on the nod" from heroin who's consistently ignored by staff that blithely passes her by, I found this site about acting great Nick Cage so funny that I laughed until I cried. I laughed so much that a nasty circulation clerk came over to censure me for laughing out loud like one of their Down Syndrome patrons (though no one actually complained), because she'd been waiting to do that to me ever since I showed up at "her library". My presence is a reminder to her of everything that's bad about her. Thy name is "Irony", pissed-off clerk and part-time government employee. I hope it was worth it. Cagenado Lives On!!!
for Sue
