I watch tragedy in movies all the time, but on the news hardly.

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

I got stuck asking myself today why I dismiss the news when something disastrous happens. Now, by disastrous I don't necessarily mean a major world event such as 9/11 or last year's earthquake in Japan. I mean events more like the freak accidents that happen for a reason other than intent or natural disaster. I mean the ones that happen and when seen on the news, people think they can avoid that event from happening to them by that very knowledge. Scary enough, some people think they can stop horrible things from happening through avoidance of that specific cause.

I knew I'd hear more about the recent ship disaster that occurred in Italy because of my dad's obsession with watching the news and reporting to me and my mom how "things happen" and that "things" aren't safe. I guarantee that while watching this report it came to my dad's mind that he wouldn't get aboard a boat or let me or my mom do so, or at least not without a speech. The last time I got on a plane my dad basically drilled into my head that I might die. That was a lovely thought for an otherwise fearless flyer to adopt.

The scary truth is, though, that my dad is right. I might die. It's those very reports that I hate watching, reading, or even remotely hearing about that prove that anything can happen at any given time. The point my dad is missing is that most of them are beyond personal control. Nobody got aboard that ship in Italy thinking they were going to face what they ended up facing. The ones who died probably never imagined they'd reached their last day. It's not that I don't like seeing the truth, although I did debate this idea for a while. It's that I know my human nature is going to hear about these unfortunate events and think for a second that I can stop them from happening to me. That's silly and selfish, and removes the over all truth from perspective. It becomes less about the victims, and more about us. I don't know about everyone else, but I already have enough things in my life that make me fight for "survival." I don't think I need to watch the news for that.

I don't for a moment want to forget that people suffer all around me every day. I just don't like the way it's presented to me most of the time. Maybe I haven't explored enough sources, but I know that my personal way of responding to the world is through art. I hear about the bad things going on in real life, but it never sounds like anything "new." It sounds like repetition. It sounds like noise. I enjoy cinema because bad movie or good movie, most of the time they get it. They understand that we can't live every day thinking we have complete control over our fate. After all, the whole story and outcome have already been planned, shot, and finalized.

In many ways, artists have many of the secrets because they explore the world and look at it beyond the exterior layer of events while too many people are fooled by it.



Photo Source:  http://www.infobarrel.com/Top_10_Disaster_Movies_of_all_time