"Prehistoric"

When you grow up in a place without buildings and people, it's easy to imagine life in prehistoric times.  Birds were pterodactyls and deer were dinosaurs and virgins were thrown off the cliff to appease the river god.  Whispers of Indians walked the river bank and stone and shell offerings were arranged in secret patterns while clay watchers protected my domain.

Sometimes creating a post for illustrationfriday is fun and easy.  "Prehistoric" has been a struggle.  I keep thinking about the downside to the isolation of my childhood.  When people don't think their actions are seen, bad things can happen.  Some of the people drawn to isolation are drawn there because they don't fit into society.  They function on the prehistoric level of dragging off your neighbor's mate by the hair or fighting wars that no one is fighting with them.

I made my rock arrangements and clay watchers because it was something I could do in an uncertain world.  Sometimes we all want to do something even if we don't know what to do.

Sometimes I'm glad I've lived an interesting life, even with all the monsters that I've met.  "That which doesn't kill you only serves to make you stronger" -- right?  (Friedrich Nietzsche)  On the other hand I've known multiple people who committed suicide, so it's not a fail-proof statement.

We all have demons, and we all find our own ways to cope with them, even if the last coping method is suicide.  I'm not suggesting that's a good coping method, but sometimes it's all that's left.  When I hear about a school shooting/suicide, I think that I've known people like the shooter.  They have so much rage there's no place to take it or way to show it without cutting down a schoolful of innocents.

When we see the world in terms of Disney princesses, how can we help the Adam Lanzas?  Even if you don't give a damn about people like him, how best to protect society from someone like him?  I don't think politicians have a clue about the desperation of some of the people amongst us.

My brother works at a hospital, and he tells me how crazy people come in, are housed for several hours, then set back on the street again because none of the limited mental health facilities will take them.  We need better solutions.  We need to get our collective heads out of Disney idealism and deal with the reality of the people around us.  We aren't in the world alone.  The crazy people are with us.  We need to actually see them and try to help.

We create our own realities -- until someone shoots a child and the murderer's reality is forced onto us.  That's the way politics seems to work.  People live in their happy Disney worlds and can't and won't understand that not everyone is as blessed.

Like I said, sometimes I'm glad I've lived an interesting life.  My experiences have helped me see a larger world.  Perhaps someone else can understand more through my life without having to look into the eyes of the crazy people?