Sand

Friar blogged about the movie Doubt http://friartucksfleetingthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/12/doubt-movie.html today and it made me think. When I saw the previews the movie intrigued me, but when I found out it was about a possible molestation - I was intrigued no longer! I wanted to stay as far away from it as possible. Well, thought maybe I MIGHT rent it on DVD eventually, but certainly would not consider paying to go to the theater and watch it.

I am now wondering if the way I am about stories with bad endings is OK to accept, or should I work on that part of me. I choose books and movies that end happily. I feel like real life has enough sad endings, why should I choose to experience one in my leisure time? I like Disney endings, even if they are not that realistic. Maybe I like them because they are not realistic. Because the truth is, real life just plain sucks sometimes.

When I think of watching Doubt, I actually feel fearful. That is the part that makes me wonder if I am smart or not to put my head in the sand. I am thinking I should go toward things that scare me to overcome them, but maybe that is just in real life and not necessarily movies as well? I know when I saw a movie a few years back, something with Children in the title - it haunted me for weeks. I just think life is too short to give that much of my precious time to something a film maker created in his own mind. I think it is haunting though because there is so much truth in it. These things are real, they really happen to real innocent people. That is what haunts me.

When I think about it, I mean REALLY think about it, there is so much abuse in this world, it does feel overwhelming. It feels like there is no way to protect all of the innocent children out there being abused right now as you read this. The reality is that it happens. Maybe I am not so much afraid of that, but overwhelmed at wanting to stop it. I wish I could do more than watch a movie and be moved. I wish I had the power to change people. I wish our world was more like a Disney movie, and the bad guy gets caught and good overcomes in the end. But, that is not the world we live in.

So, I just keep putting my head in the sand and keeping it there so I don't have to see the real pain around me. It doesn't help me or the ones in pain, but somehow I feel better not looking. That is reality.