Years ago, I wrote a pretty good novel if I do say so myself. “The Melancholy Samurai” is about a regular guy who’s given the opportunity to rid the world of every villain, venial to abhorrent. We’ve been visited by five major mass extinctions. When the next one visits, wouldn’t it be ducky if we could pick, who would stay and who could go? All the hero has to do is push a button and set into motion a mass extinction. Every murderer, rapist, child molester, the white collar vice president who came up with the idea of switching the pay period from 30 days to three weeks on credit card payments, human traffickers, crooked politicians and down to the bully HOA sergeant at arms — in a blink, like a dark Santa Claus, the hero could rid the world of every miscreant.
Which is a lot of miscreants.
The protagonist spots the obvious problem. Who is truly evil and who is maybe just having a bad day? Who is, like the Thief on the Cross, soon to finally transform a wretched life into one of redemption? Who are any of us to decide — who’s naughty and who’s nice?
On Jan. 24, 2023, Lindsay Clancy fatally strangled her three children, ages 3, 5 and 8 months. She then attempted suicide by slashing her wrists and neck, then jumping from the roof of her second-story home. She survived but was left paralyzed from the waist down. Claiming she suffered from post-partum, last week, she earned a hung jury. Despite her confession, which included that she planned the triple homicide, 11 jurors voted to acquit her of first degree murder. One lone juror in the Massachusetts trial felt she was guilty. As I write this, there’s no decision by the prosecution to seek a retrial.
A dear friend of mine noted years ago that the fundamental unit of humanity is insanity. I’ve found no argument contradicting my friend’s observation. Certainly, everyday life, and, history, is resplendent with examples. It strikes me 21st century life bombards us with evidence of a world seemingly sliding madcap downhill to Hades. The Clancy case is another example of slicing the country in half. Talk shows, blogs and the toothy reader comments that follow online news stories, mostly the sides are divided and screaming at the other. Some call for Mrs. Clancy’s head on a pike. Some shrug and see the murderess as the victim and want her, if not freed, then given knitting to master. Both seem to favor that holders of opposite opinions be given the death penalty.
The very same pal who made the observation on us being crazy had another doozy, one I still recall regularly. She said:
“The devil doesn’t care what you’re upset about, just that you’re upset.”
Being upset seems like our default position in America today. Iran. Trump. ICE. Public education. The WNBA. Weather. Being divided is both a matter of honest self-preservation and our worst quality. We’ve been surrounded by sneaky enemies going back eons. It’s wise to be watchful of fatal attacks, if not worse. The byproduct is we’ve developed the invisible muscle of automatically leaping to see our fellow man not only as an enemy, but a dirty one who needs to be shamed and destroyed.
I’ve another wise friend.
(I’m blessed with many.)
Years ago, this poor fellow, a highly successful man, was saddled with this pond scum of a wife. Not being judgmental, just observational. She was a drunk, drug addict, liar, thief, skank, vulgar, mean, lazy, physically abusive and cheated on him while he provided her with love and luxury. My buddy with the demon spouse sought counsel. Emotionally exhausted, he recounted the toll this union was taking on him and how he had married a succubus. After an hour of psychic dumping, he fully expected to be hit up-side his pumpkin head with some annoying New Age Psychiatry bumper stickerism or biblical how-to of cheek turning, smiling out of context and forgiveness. After his long confession, he was stunned to hear seven words I shall never forget. They were:
“You’re right. She’s a **** — (swear word withheld as this is a community newspaper). Now what?”
You see, some of us are smart. It may take a while, but we know if we’ve been robbed, shot, cheated and/or been sexually breached without a kiss. Goof that he was, my friend foolishly married the worst-case scenario soap opera porn harlot pickpocket. I’m sure the gal has a biography defending what turned her into the lowlife she had become. Tragic childhood, raised in a bad neighborhood by feral gerbils, too many Twinkies, one can always find justifications. But the question at least should arise at some point — what do you do with completely unacceptable and dangerous behavior from those in our community and certainly in our family?
“Now what?”
On all levels of social constructs, we seem to have misplaced the ability to reach decisions of what that next step should be. For Lindsay Clancy, some feel she deserves the death penalty for not just murdering her three young children, but planning the deed. Others, in Massachusetts, view it as a mulligan. An old adage says crime doesn’t pay. But, in Mrs. Clancy’s case, murder is paying someone. So far, she’s earned $1.2 million on her GoFundMe page. The money is to go for her parents and their travel and living expenses, along with, of course, to pay for lawyers.
Somewhere, in America, there’s a Buddhist monk whose blood pressure hasn’t risen nor fallen a burp over this case.
Everyone else?
Both sides?
They’re upset.
Was my friend right? That there is — actually — a devil? And, if so, is he the only one happy that everyone is upset — over pretty much everything?
Every day …?
Pick up “Naked Came the Novelist,” John Boston’s sequel to the international bestseller, “Naked Came the Sasquatch,” at JohnBoston-Books.com. A lifelong SCV resident with 119 major writing awards and nearly 12,000 columns, Boston is Earth history’s most prolific humorist and satirist.
