On A Special Diet: inspiration

Friday, May 15, 2009

inspiration

twilight examiner, amanda bell, posted an interview with the author of wide awake. read the full article here.

what really struck me was one of the comments:

revrag says:

This interview was great. AG has a way with words. Because I have entirely too much time on my hands I also read through the comments. Most are not surprising or far off the mark when speaking praise for AG and that WA is the best fanfic. I did come across one specific comment that struck a nerve with me. While I respect the opinion of most anyone, I have to completely disagree with IsabellaCullen's comment, "The author aims at realism, but if half of the many, over the top, pyschological situations were real, the characters would be instituitionalized." My reply (this may take awhile and bring up a can of worms...see unicorn thread if you don't believe me):

I've lived through a home invasion. I have a seriously mentally ill mother. I grew up in foster homes and group homes. When I was little, on more than one occasion, my own mother tried to kill me. No joke. As a teenager, one of my trusted guardians sexually molested me. I've lived through the death of my beloved sister. I've survived the suicide of my brother. I'm currently living through an henious situation where my 15-year-old neighbor made a horrific choice and as a result I had to stomach watching my 2-year-old daughter endure a rape exam. Not fun stuff. Unfortunately, I could go on, but that's enough "over the top" situations.

My point is, I have never been instituitionalized, ever. While these physchological situations definitely warrant help and nuturing, they can be overcome without resulting in "forced" help. I live a normal, happy life. I have a wonderful husband and beautiful children who deserve all of me. They have it, all the time, not because I was forced into therapy (which I did have after my sister's death) but because of the choices I make daily. I have chosen not to allow the choices of others, or the actions of others to entirely and ultimately influence who I am or who I want to become.

So, in short, these characters could be real and functioning. A blanket statement noting that all people with these sorts of problems should be instituitionalized is ignorant and poorly thought out at best.

Everyone has problems, it's called life. There's something going on in each of our lives that someone else may deem impossible or messed up. I've heard once that if a group of people were given the option of placing all their troubles and heartache on a table in front of them (as if in a neat little pile) and step back and look objectively at all the troubles that accumulated on said table, after being told to pick which pile they wanted to take and endure, each person would choose their own pile. Why? Because it's familiar? Perhaps. Because seeing what others have to endure is just as messed up, if not more so than their own crap? Maybe.

There's a lot "over the top, pyschological situations" people are dealing with all around us, all the time. It not new, or even surprising. However, an instituition is not practical in a lot of these situations, if it were there would be one on every corner in every neighborhood. We would all be committed. Period.