Using Fantasy to Escape Tragedy
As I’ve mentioned many time on this blog, I’m a teacher in Texas. By now, everyone has heard of the tragic events in Uvalde, where 19 elementary students and two teachers were murdered in cold blood in a classroom, a place where they should feel safe. This event certainly hit close to home for me and my colleagues. I hope we remember the names of those who lost their lives, and make their sacrifice matter.
I recently watched a few Youtube videos to put all of this in perspective for me. The first is of Matthew McConaughey. If you haven’t taken the time to watch this. Please do so. Matthew is from Uvalde, and while I often scoff when “Hollywood” types get involved in things like this, because this is his hometown, this feels genuine and personal to him. Here’s the video:
Like he said, I hope we can make their sacrifice matter. I’m a gun owner (like I said, I live in Texas), but I’m not foolish or blind enough to believe that the time for common sense gun laws was twenty years ago. I still vividly remember Columbine. I can’t fathom that Sandy Hook came and went, and still we allowed gun lobbyists and the NRA to convince Americans that clutching their rifles was more valuable that parents clutching their children. I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t think a wholesale removal of all guns is realistic, but I do think things like red flags laws, gun show loopholes, universal background checks, and changing the legal age to buy guns are literally the least we could do.
The next video I watched that caused me to cry was the pediatrician describing how the bodies of the children he examined in the Uvalde shooting were decapitated and pulverized beyond recognition. At first, I thought perhaps he was exaggerating. Here’s that video:
The thought of kids mangled beyond recognition, their clothes barely clinging to what’s left of their flesh is horrifying. I haven’t seen many talking about this video, and I wonder if we live in such a society of lies that perhaps people just don’t believe words any longer. Or perhaps it would take seeing the visuals of these mangled bodies to shock people—especially our legislators who seem unlikely to act, even in the face of these facts—to do something.
When initially watching this, I imagined the kids, bullet holes in their bodies. Someone in the comments to this video posted another—one that was much more eye opening. It was of a man, a hunter, testing an AR-15 on flesh and bone. He shot various rounds of ammunition from this rifle into a slab of pork shoulder. I could describe how it completely eviscerated the flesh and pulverized the bone, but it would probably be more effective if you saw it yourself.
As I watched, I started to imagine the faces of those 19 kids who have been all over the news instead of this chunk of pork. I wept. It was easy to see how this weapon was able to do the damage described by the pediatrician above. Why does an 18-year old, or anyone other than a soldier, need access to these weapons? They don’t. I hope we all can at least come to that conclusion after seeing this.
I stopped the video and cried for a while. I prayed that we as a country can do something about this issue that keeps plaguing our country and my profession. When I deal with things, I tend to write.
I’m working on a sequel to my novel, Timberwolves. In it, the main character, Dominic Shaw is on the run in the wilds of Wyoming, and he comes across a fundamentalist militia deep in the Rocky Mountains. This cult is obsessed with their guns and religion. He must try to take down these gun-nuts, save his friends, and escape capture by the FBI. There’s a portion of the book that deals with Washington, political intrigue, lobbying, secret cabals, etc. All of this hit a little too close to home, and I had to stop writing.
Instead, I picked up a pen and began to delve into a fantasy world. Here’s where I began:
Once upon a time, a mermaid was granted three wishes by an ancient genie. This genie’s small, copper lamp had been cast into the sea by its former master. The young mermaid, whose name sounded something like two clams being rubbed together and translated to Evia in English, saw the lamp glinting amongst some coral in a rarely visited reef while she looked for a snack.
Now, this story that popped into my head wasn’t a story about a mermaid. It wasn’t even a story about the three wishes granted to her by the genie (all of this happens very quickly in the first couple of pages). It’s the story of her son—who, because of some odd circumstances—was born very human, and very average. He’s going to have to find his place in this magical world, and find a way to do something that matters. Maybe I’m thinking of what Matthew McConaughey said, but I’m hopeful that this boy, as normal and powerless as he seems to be, can realize his dreams and do something that makes a difference in his world.
I hope we all can.
