Want or need
Wrote this in the Word Press Days...still speaks
In the author-world a novel has to run the character through what they think they want ensuring by the end, they understand what was really needed all along.
Trending story themes come and go. I am not on board with a trend that's been burgeoning across media for decades—fear instilling, anxiety driven, impending doom wrapped into story. I like a good thriller, or postapocalyptic story; I really do. It can't be my primary diet.
I don't want to stare wide-eyed into the dark from gripping fear. I don't mind a person being shot in the eye with an arrow only for the camera to quickly pan away. I pan away if I have to watch that arrow twisted in someone's eye. I don't want to feel paralyzed about the condition of the world. I don't want to think the only possible outcome is human extinction. Give me hope over extinction any day. Give me laughter over arrow twisting pain. Give me friendship triumphing over horror in the woods.
Despite what some may say, I am not a Pollyanna thinker. But I do believe what we spend time thinking, plays into our reality.
I'm all for understanding an experience. Understanding another's pain, learning of their struggle, or their reality. I am all for deepening my understanding, for gaining insight. Some people endure horrid things and we need to know their story.
We have an anxiety ridden, lonely population. It burdens us. It overrides the collective psyche. We can't throw enough mental health providers at it to cause a dent. Our sense of power is dimming. We can't see the light anymore because we have gone so far down the doomsday rabbit hole.
The anxiety is real, it is physical. Our life's pace only accelerates. Traffic is crazy. Frenetic energy floods the air. Exhausted from the day, we stumble to the TV or the gaming console. We want choices that masks the stress. If it calms us, helps us step away, I guess it can't be all bad.
The news gives us it thinks we want. Social media shows us what we want. Hollywood gives us what we want. Game developers give us what we want.
But is it what we really need?