Under
Construction
Violence
-
in
movies
and
on the news
The other night I saw a
movie about a war in some distant place, far from here. It could
have been any of the many conflicts around the world these days.
When it was over, I found
myself wondering what I felt about it. Both
sides of the conflict seemed to have legitimate beefs about their
treatment at the hands of the other side, but not having been involved,
I could hardly choose sides, let alone pass judgement. There was no
resolution at
hand, and neither side seemed willing to compromise..... so.... what is
one to think of this........ or more accurately....... what does one
'feel' about it. It left me feeling unsettled.
As human beings, we seem to need to take
sides, form an opinion, see a resolution, make some sense of our
experiences, that will allow us to feel that the suffering will not go
on endlessly; but this film allowed none of these. Instead, the viewer
was left with a vague unsettled feeling.... a feeling that something
was terribly wrong, but with no sense of what could be done. I don't
know if there is more violence in the world than there used to be, but
thanks (or no thanks) to universal media, we see a great deal of it,
and it often leaves me stupified. There are conflicts that I, rightly
or wrongly, have some opinion about; conflicts that I, or my family, my
friends, or anscestors have been involved in. These I can deal with;
but a war in a far away land that I'm not at all involved in, and know
nothing about ?? And we are constantly bombarded with this sort
of thing in the news, day in and day out. But it is our reaction to
what we see that causes us to feel helpless, numb, enraged.
One of
the reason for marriage, and perhaps many, breakups
When a
couple has a painful experience together, perhaps the death of a child,
an infidelity, financial difficulties, etc. they may, in time,
overcome the
particular
pain and go on with
their lives; but there is one unforseen thing that stays with them as
long as they are together, and that is the fact that the other person,
who also experienced the event, is always there as a subliminal
reminder of the sorrow and pain they both experienced. They may not
even n hold each other respsonible for the
pain they went through, but it is always there, as part of their life
together. So..... in an attempt to divest themselves of their pain they
separate, hoping to leave behind the bad memory when they leave the
other person. Even if they still care for
each other and have seemingly overcome their diffuculities the reminder
of what they went though is always with them as long as the other
person is still in their life.
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