What is it waiting for? Waiting for conflict resolution. The conflict simmering under the surface that threatens to erupt. Not me ... but sitting next to me. Eating at the counter, making cupcakes in the kitchen, walking the dog down the street ... close. I want to pop it. I want it to erupt and be over. I want it to erupt to discover that it just plops instead of pops and then fades away into nothing.
I poke at it, gently. trying to find the edges without causing it to erupt. I'm not really a very patient person, although i have learned patience. It's an unrealiable patiene, where I appear to sit quietly but my insides are churning and the spring inside that is me is tightly wound. I want it over.
I play the scenarios over and over in my mind. One sits quietly, nods, agrees and disappears into the back. One becomes angry, bitter words escape, challenges, threats, accusations emerge in a torrent of sound and emotion. One sits as silent tears drop onto the flood. What to do, what to do? My insides churn, there is no good news, there will be no easy resolution. One of two will be unhappy. What do I do? Maybe if I do nothing the churning will drop back into the bottom of the boiling pot and wait for another day. Should I let it wait or should I push it to eruption now?
I don't know.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Slenderman Did It
I was introducted to the "Slender" game a couple of years ago, by my then 11 year old grandson who, along with his cousin, downloaded it, and "Kick the Buddy" onto my then new iPad. I was going through the apps on my iPad when I noticed the games and, grandson at my elbow cautiously ensuring that I wouldn't delete the new games, pulled up the games to see what they were.
Okay, I didn't really like them but other than a vague feeling of, well, ickiness, couldn't find anything overtly objectionable. So I, with reservations intact, allowed the games to stay. When my iPad disappeared a couple of months later, and then reappeared without the games, I was happier. So today, in the news, in the aftermath of the horrible shooting at Cici's Pizza of two Metro police officers, I'm reading that the male suspect of the 'Bonnie and Clyde' couple type of murderers liked to dress up as Slenderman.
I knew it sounded familiar, so I googled it and yep, it was the same shadowy, ominous, slinky, faceless figure from the "Slender" game and still icky. So google brings me more information, more than I wanted. An attempted stabbing of a mother by her daughter who was wearing a hood and white mask in Cincinnati, and more unconsciounable, a group of 12-year-old Wisconsin girls who stabbed their friend 19 times in honor of, you guessed it, slenderman.
So is this hooded, shadowy figure from a game (where his part is no more violent than abduction) guilty of inspiring this kind of violence, or it is just a way to point a finger away from those who find such violence exciting. Reminiscent of the anti-Dungeons and Dragons sentiment that playing the role-playing games would incite people to become Satanists. Or the concern that violent video games would incite kids to perform violent acts. I tend to think that maybe viewing violence dehumanizes the victims and, for some, make it exciting enough to consider trying it out themselves. Then once the reality of what has been done sets in, they can turn to the boogeyman.
Kind of a "The boogeyman made me do it." I used to believe that the boogeyman didn't exist. Now, I'm not so sure.
Okay, I didn't really like them but other than a vague feeling of, well, ickiness, couldn't find anything overtly objectionable. So I, with reservations intact, allowed the games to stay. When my iPad disappeared a couple of months later, and then reappeared without the games, I was happier. So today, in the news, in the aftermath of the horrible shooting at Cici's Pizza of two Metro police officers, I'm reading that the male suspect of the 'Bonnie and Clyde' couple type of murderers liked to dress up as Slenderman.
I knew it sounded familiar, so I googled it and yep, it was the same shadowy, ominous, slinky, faceless figure from the "Slender" game and still icky. So google brings me more information, more than I wanted. An attempted stabbing of a mother by her daughter who was wearing a hood and white mask in Cincinnati, and more unconsciounable, a group of 12-year-old Wisconsin girls who stabbed their friend 19 times in honor of, you guessed it, slenderman.
So is this hooded, shadowy figure from a game (where his part is no more violent than abduction) guilty of inspiring this kind of violence, or it is just a way to point a finger away from those who find such violence exciting. Reminiscent of the anti-Dungeons and Dragons sentiment that playing the role-playing games would incite people to become Satanists. Or the concern that violent video games would incite kids to perform violent acts. I tend to think that maybe viewing violence dehumanizes the victims and, for some, make it exciting enough to consider trying it out themselves. Then once the reality of what has been done sets in, they can turn to the boogeyman.
Kind of a "The boogeyman made me do it." I used to believe that the boogeyman didn't exist. Now, I'm not so sure.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Poetry Month Musings ... Week Three (kind of)
Day
17 – Katrina … Acrostic
Timeless and ageless
Replete with swoons
Ideological logical
Not
A more loyal friend has never been sought
Day
18 … Dirge
The sea sifts
swiftly
SilentlyStoically
Through the remains of the wastrel waif
She plummets
through wild
Wailing Whitecaps
Undisturbed by their ferocious frenzy
Picking through scattered
remains
FossilFootprints
Announce their fate … only
Relics
Remain
Day
19 …
Epigram
Beware the sound
protagonist
He rarely is
antagonist
Day
20 … Gnomic Verse
Last hired First fired
The saddest words it’s true
My day was gladdest
yellow
And now I’m only
blue
Waste not
Want notComes very close behind
I threw away
leftover stew
And now I’ve only
wineAnd I slept in too late
My job is gone
My lunch is goneMy bed is out the gate
He who laughs last
Laughs best, it’s
true
I woke up from my
nightmare
My sunny sky is blue
Day
21 … The Circle --- Concrete Poetry
One
Around
Two
around
Three times or four
Minus one just for fun
And soon there’s
Nothing
More
Day
22 … Heart
It thrums through
my body
Like a drumYou’re not home yet
It pounds through
my veins
Like bolts into
steelThe doorbell rings
It abandons my
bones
Leaving water for
iceAn unfamiliar face
It recaptures my
senses
Translating words
into meaningShe’s fine
What does it do?
What does it not?
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