Getting the Joke

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I just exchanged emails with a pair of old friends, folks who had weight issues and constantly used one reason or another to explain why they couldn't. Now he's blind with diabetes, and she's had multiple heart and other problems. Good, sweet people. All I can do is pray for them, and hope that life will be kind. And get my ego out of it: it wasn't my responsibility, it wasn't my fault, everyone has to walk their own path.

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It still hurts.

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Only one day until District 9! My prediction: I'll wince over a couple of things, but in the end, love it. As to the racial stuff: I don't know many South Africans, but if they are like Southerners, there is literally NOTHING like a Southerner who "gets it" in terms of race. They have huge hearts and open minds, as well as an appreciation for the way life has actually been in America if you aren't white. They're wonderful. And maybe, just maybe, SA'ers are the same way. The reality is that almost every country was founded on the bones of the previous inhabitants. No one's hands are free of blood. The problem is when the people who benefitted by the oppression blame the oppressed for their circumstances. That drives me a little nuts, I have to confess. But just a little.

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One of the things about "Health Care Reform" is that in many ways we don't currently have a health care industry. We have a Sickness Care program, where we wait until someone breaks down to provide them services. The "go to the emergency room" approach makes as much sense as waiting until your engine seizes up to change the oil. I am appalled how little most people know about taking care of their health, and when I hear people complaining about preventable diseases (heart disease, many cancers, stress and obesity related disorders, other lifestyle stuff) being part of the problem of America's health statistics, my jaw wants to hit the ground. That is EXACTLY the point to me! To provide people with the support necessary to prevent these things before they happen. Wow. All I can figure is that this is an expression of the "Nature/Nurture" split I see across political lines, that some believe, deep in their hearts, that if you are poor you want to be poor. If you're sick you want to be sick. If you are alone you want to be alone. I've had too many conversations with people who said just these things not to believe them. And they tend to be on the Right. Because I believe that there is no monopoly on decency, intelligence or compassion on either side, to me, this is
Existential Ethics, and not really politics. Politics is secondary to world view.

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To me, it is like someone trapped in a burning house, unable to see because of smoke and flame, confused by the noise. Hiding in a closet. If you found that person, one might claim that they "wanted" to die in that closet, but it would ignore the fact that they saw no way out that did not seem more dangerous, more painful, than crouching in the smoke.

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That's how I see it, and I know I'm dogmatic about that. I just don't believe people want to be in pain. We're smarter than worms, and any worm will move away from pain. When you see people in emotional, physical, or financial pain it ain't because that's what they wanted. We get trapped in a maze of conflicting beliefs, fears, moral strictures, conflicting data...it is so sad, because happiness on all these levels is so available to us.

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Because every other industrialized country has socialized health care, and gets better results than we get with a smaller expenditure, it is impossible for me to believe we aren't going to get through this. And on the other side, I think we'll be able to speak with our brothers and sisters and understand more about what they were afraid of. And start being a country again.

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I was speaking with a Kenyan neighbor who wants to take his family back to Africa. A brilliant man, he has seen some ugliness in his job (a high-level profession I won't go into) that he attributes to racial issues. I commented to him that America is probably less racist than it has ever been. The problem is that the masks are slipping. It's a lot like Southern towns where all is peaceful and harmonious as long as blacks stay on their side of town, don't protest bad treatment and don't want to go to the good school. The second they do, "trouble" starts--but the trouble was always there, don't you see? And in the Town Halls and pale corners of the blogosphere we can see what happens when a group begins to realize that they AREN'T any better than others. And that they have reason to fear being treated the same way they've treated others. It isn't funny, and it isn't really pleasurable to watch happening. The fear is so strong its choking.

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These are the same people who insisted that a judiciary or legislative branch can be composed exclusively of white males, and represent everyone well...but if a brown person approaches power, why then of course whites will be disadvantaged. This kind of thinking is like saying whites are better because they don't think they're better. I love that kind of warped thinking, but anyone who shakes their heads at it would be better served to wonder where they, themselves, are equally deluded.

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Trust me: the more amazed, shocked, disappointed or whatever you are about these things, the less you understand human nature, and the less likely you are to really grasp why you yourself have done the things you've done in your own life. The people I've known who were the most judgemental had the most glaring holes in their own behavior and results. Those who have been best-balanced tend to be empathetic and open-hearted. Not all, but most, and I notice stuff like this.

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It is impossible not to hear good news about the economy. For two months now, I've heard expert after expert suggest that "green shoots" are showing through the rubble, and now it's better than that. But economics ain't my long suit. Some of you are far better. Opinions?

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One of the most important things a writer can do is fall in love with his characters. To look deeply enough into their hearts to understand why they do the things they do. I've known some terrible cynics who are good writers...even excellent writers. But it has always seemed to me that under the cynicism was a deep well of frustrated optimism. I've known writers, even had them as students, who saw nothing but ugliness in the world, were warped into pretzels trying to make the outside world mirror their inner pain. Some succeed, if they are very very clever indeed. But to me the better path is to fall in love with the world. With its citizens, who are just bits of protoplasm doing the best they can. If you can't do that, you can't really love yourself, because under it all we sense that we're all part of the same situation. And without self-love we are lost. I base my teaching on the concept that story structure is not separate from life itself, and characterization is an externalization of our own feeling about ourselves.

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If you have no ability to resolve problems on one of the three basic levels, you risk joining the legion of mediocre philosophers who believe that their own limits are the limits of all reality. That if they cannot find love, love is impossible. If they are at war with their bodies, that reflects the total human condition. If they cannot balance their checkbooks or make a living doing something they love, that all ambition is corrupt and bound for failure. It is so sad. They write stories in which their characters make stupid, obvious mistakes, but act as if it was the universe who doomed their efforts. It is sad, and I've seen this defeat even talented people. Who wants that kind of depression? Do you really believe that you can despise humanity and simultaneously produce uplifting work? Or are you going to aim at the lowest common denominator, figuring that we deserve nothing better?

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No. I find this genuinely sad. Pitiful, even. Such writers are often quite smart, but they wear their intelligence as a shield rather than establishing it as a core. Some of them grow up, or heal. Some do not. I always live in hope...but that is because, at the base, I believe in us, and that belief is unshakable. We are no more, and no less, than the stars. We are insignificant before the majesty of the universe...but the universe itself is insignificant in the endless pulse of expansion and collapse over stretches of time beyond comprehension. We are, each of us, as important as the universe itself. And as trivial as a grain of sand. It's all very very good indeed, once you get the joke.

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