thursday ramblings

So the Great White manager got 4 years in prison for that horrible fire a few years ago. I think that sucks. It's not like he meant to kill anyone - he had done the same pyrotechnics routine at their shows for years. It just so happened that this time the place caught on fire. He was given permission to do them at this club - how was he supposed to know? He looked so distraught. It's obvious that these deaths will hang over him for his whole life - what good will prison do?

I guess I do understand it, though. People go to jail everyday for things they never meant to do - it's called manslaughter. Being reckless. It's just a shame, though. This is the type of thing that could happen to any one of us at any time. You could be in the right place at the wrong time, or the wrong place at the right time. It's scary. No one can be meticulously careful every minute of their lives. I'm sure that if this guy thought for one moment that he could end up killing all of those people, he never would have done the pyrotechnics.

My boss told me a horrible story the other day on our way to lunch. A daughter of one of his clients had a baby, and was in her bed with the baby feeding it when she fell asleep and ended up smothering the baby. I was horror struck. This is something that could happen to any new mother - you're so tired, and though you know you shouldn't fall asleep with the baby in your bed, you do it without even knowing it. So tragic. I can't even imagine such a thing, but these things happen every day. I guess it's the ability to somehow overcome that makes us stronger.

Or maybe it would make us crazy. I remember this woman - she was pretty notorious around West County Mall (I worked at Famous with my dad for a number of years). She would walk the mall endlessly, never without a huge soda of some sort. She was a large woman (very tall and overweight), with long, graying hair. She didn't usually say a word, just paced the mall over and over. My dad did tell me once that she told him she knew that aliens came overnight and refilled all of the items in the store. She really believed this. Anyway, most of the employees made fun of her. I found out later that she had been a gorgeous young woman, and was gang raped by a crowd of guys, and had never been the same since. I guess drinking soda all day while walking the mall and convincing yourself aliens manufactured the goods was her way of coping.

Are some of us stronger than others? Or do we all have our melting point? Do some of us melt before others? I think there's plenty of proof that trauma can cause a mind to turn on itself or mold itself into something able to cope with the trauma. It's actually fascinating, though very sad. Lots of people go through trauma, though. Why do some snap? Or develop multiple personalities? It's amazing how much science knows about our bodies, but how little it knows about the brain.

I'm not sure how this rambling ended up here, but oh well. Go with it.