life questions

nature: my bridge over troubled water

I watched the news last night for the first time in two weeks.  I’ve gotta say, I was tempted to turn my TV off for good.  I mean, I realize the media is all about relaying disaster and murder and mayhem, but when you don’t watch the news for a while and then tune in, the first thing that slams you is this: a lot of people in this world seem to have a problem with hatred.

Yesterday on the blog I rambled on about questions.  I have a lot of them, and as I churn on them they turn into stories.  Questioning my place in the universe was the prime motivation behind BEING.  Questioning why I fear certain things that others don’t, and vice versa, is the prime motivator of Goodbye Moon [my WIP].  And this brings me to why I mentioned the news.  Questioning why people hate had a lot to do with Painted Boots.

I don’t understand hatred.  To me, it’s an emotion that sucks people dry.  And I guess because I don’t give time to hating, it’s always a shock when I come across people who do.  For example.  One of my neighbors has very deep political hatred.  Whenever I’m in conversation with him I respond with positive comments: his yard looks nice, his daughter is growing up fast, stuff like that.  It’s strange, though, how eager he is to get right back to his negative rant, like talking about positive things is difficult for him.  His hatred infects everything he says (which to me means it has already infected everything he thinks).  One of my life-questions is, was and will always be: why do people hate?  It’s such a downer.

When I wrote Em, the antagonist in Painted Boots, I began with the idea that her personality was fatally infected with hatred.  The emotion owned her; she couldn’t control it.  Em’s character was my way of trying to understand how people, who were once small, sweet children, grow up to hurt others in an effort to make themselves feel powerful.  I don’t know if genuinely hateful people are as narrow and manipulating as Em was . . . but sadly, when I watch the news, I get the feeling I nailed her personality type spot on.

Time to go listen to John Lennon’s Imagine . . . .