My Week of Boredom
Today I made a CD that tells the story of a lonely woman who gets in a bad relationship, through song, by all women artists. It's a good album. I'm so bored.
Now I'm watching Intervention. Matt (the boyfriend) considers this to be one of my "depressing" shows. I tend to watch a lot of Cold Case, Law and Order, Intervention, documentaries about drugs or alcohol or gangs or prostitution. I suppose they are depressing, but they are also super fascinating. What intrigues me most is how these people live, what is it that separates me from them? And you know what, there's not much. A couple life choices, perhaps. But that's what makes these shows and stories so interesting to me. Too many people view drug addicts, murderers, general "bad" people as totally separate from themselves.
"Oh, I could never be like that, I could never do that." And that's where prejudice comes from, a total separation. From viewing someone as "the other" instead of as a version of themselves. Prejudice comes from fear, and fear comes from a lack of understanding. I watch these shows to try to understand, what makes people like this? What makes them do drugs, sell their bodies, join a gang, murder somebody?
There is this blog I follow on Facebook, called Humans of New York. A while ago there was a post, it said:
"I can't stand moral absolutism. You know, there's always that guy who wants to point out that Martin Luther King cheated on his wife-- as if he obviously couldn't have been a great person if he did something like that. Or someone will bring out an inspirational quote, and get you to agree, and then inform you that Hitler said it. As if a good thought couldn't come from Hitler. Moral absolutism keeps us from learning from the past. It's easy to say: 'Hitler was a demon. Nazis were all bad seeds.' That's simple. It's much harder to say: 'Is that humanity? Is that me?"
That's what I think when I watch those shows. Maybe it's partially as research for writing, because you can't create believable characters without a certain sympathy for mankind in all forms. Or, maybe even more, how can you be a human without trying to understand, without this unquenchable thirst to see the "other" as you, a part of you. People tell children all the time that they are so full of potential, which they are. But not all that potential is for good. Humans are capable of good and evil, it's all in there. Right now, as I sit here on the couch and type this, I myself am capable of good and evil. Every human has angels and monsters, always. It's what makes us so interesting. If more people saw their own angels, their own demons, maybe there would be less hate.
It's too easy to say, "I could never do drugs, I could never sell my body" but maybe what you should be asking yourself "what has kept me from doing drugs, from selling my body?" If we try to understand, instead of trying so hard to separate, maybe...
I don't know. Sometimes I think that's the point of art, in today's society. Maybe art should make you question humanity, make someone question their own humanity. Sometimes I think art is just supposed to be a highlight to what's beautiful in the world. Maybe that's the same thing...
Now I'm watching Intervention. Matt (the boyfriend) considers this to be one of my "depressing" shows. I tend to watch a lot of Cold Case, Law and Order, Intervention, documentaries about drugs or alcohol or gangs or prostitution. I suppose they are depressing, but they are also super fascinating. What intrigues me most is how these people live, what is it that separates me from them? And you know what, there's not much. A couple life choices, perhaps. But that's what makes these shows and stories so interesting to me. Too many people view drug addicts, murderers, general "bad" people as totally separate from themselves.
"Oh, I could never be like that, I could never do that." And that's where prejudice comes from, a total separation. From viewing someone as "the other" instead of as a version of themselves. Prejudice comes from fear, and fear comes from a lack of understanding. I watch these shows to try to understand, what makes people like this? What makes them do drugs, sell their bodies, join a gang, murder somebody?
There is this blog I follow on Facebook, called Humans of New York. A while ago there was a post, it said:
"I can't stand moral absolutism. You know, there's always that guy who wants to point out that Martin Luther King cheated on his wife-- as if he obviously couldn't have been a great person if he did something like that. Or someone will bring out an inspirational quote, and get you to agree, and then inform you that Hitler said it. As if a good thought couldn't come from Hitler. Moral absolutism keeps us from learning from the past. It's easy to say: 'Hitler was a demon. Nazis were all bad seeds.' That's simple. It's much harder to say: 'Is that humanity? Is that me?"
That's what I think when I watch those shows. Maybe it's partially as research for writing, because you can't create believable characters without a certain sympathy for mankind in all forms. Or, maybe even more, how can you be a human without trying to understand, without this unquenchable thirst to see the "other" as you, a part of you. People tell children all the time that they are so full of potential, which they are. But not all that potential is for good. Humans are capable of good and evil, it's all in there. Right now, as I sit here on the couch and type this, I myself am capable of good and evil. Every human has angels and monsters, always. It's what makes us so interesting. If more people saw their own angels, their own demons, maybe there would be less hate.
It's too easy to say, "I could never do drugs, I could never sell my body" but maybe what you should be asking yourself "what has kept me from doing drugs, from selling my body?" If we try to understand, instead of trying so hard to separate, maybe...
I don't know. Sometimes I think that's the point of art, in today's society. Maybe art should make you question humanity, make someone question their own humanity. Sometimes I think art is just supposed to be a highlight to what's beautiful in the world. Maybe that's the same thing...
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