Dumb as a Rock and Dying for Attention
An excerpt from www.cnn.com
********************
"NORTH FORT MYERS, Florida (AP)
-- A woman fell to her death while trying to do a handstand on the railing of a second-floor hotel balcony, sheriff's officials said.
Molly Jerman, 23, of Cape Coral died Sunday.
While attempting a handstand, she toppled over and dropped to the hotel patio, according to the Lee County sheriff's department.
Just before she fell, she had called out to a friend, "Watch to see what I can still do," a police report said.
Foul play is not believed to be involved, officials said."
*********************
23 year old Molly Jerman called out to her friend "Watch to see what I can still do" before attempting a handstand on a handrail that couldn't have been any wider than a few inches; then plunged to her death...For what? Some attention? A few minutes of blissful recognition for, what? Anything? Certainly not validation, friendship? It sounds like she already had friends; one of which heard the cry for attention and then stood by and watched Molly Jerman (essentially) commit suicide.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not blaming Molly's friends' inaction for Molly's death. Rather; I'm simply pointing out that (IMHO) there's a certain level of "H0-Hum" that seems to be embedded in our reactivity to the world around us.
Let me explain...
Even though I was born in the late '70s and didn't really know what was going on until the early-'90s; I can look back now and see how much things have changed.
The way we relate to each other, our family members, strangers, men and women, the breakdown of communication as friendly banter turned to negotiation in a business atmosphere.
Single men don't ask single women out for a date while working in a professional workplace for fear of being sued for harassment...If a man has good fashion sense, a nice hair cut, smells nice, is polite and use words like "Please" and Thank You"; He must be gay...If a woman can bench her weight, curses like a sailor and wears kahkis; she must be a lesbian...Women, in general, believe that all men are swine, lazy, stupid-good for nothing - UNLESS - They are wildly rich...Men, in general, believe that all women are money-hungry-bitches with unrealistic demands - UNLESS - They are super models with an incredible rack...Children do not confide in their parents for fear of being controlled and punished unjustly...Parents do not scold their children for fear of being reported to child protective services or be viewed as an ogre or un-cool by their kids...Husbands and wives don't talk about their wants and needs as married couples until it's too late and no amount of talk will fix the leaks in the relation-ship. etc. etc. etc.
...And so the suffering continues down the line, Father to Son, Mother to Daughter, Husband to Wife, Stranger to Stranger until we are afraid to speak to one another for fear of offending another person with our opinion on Coke VS Pepsi.
We watch endless hours of "Reality" TV and we root for the type-cast "good guy" and hope beyond hope that he or she will be able to eat just enough roaches or drive a sports car off of a rooftop just fast enough to jump through the flaming hoop...We ponder whether the Bachelorette will make the right choice and dump the stalking wanna-be from Timbucktu or keep the hunky Fireman from San Diego...We are shocked when the latest hollywood royalty couple breaks up because one wants to have a baby and the other wants to have a stripper...We envy the rich and famous for their rich and famous lifestyles and their insanely expensive choices in home decor...We read magazines that do nothing more than make us feel like we need to lose half of our body weight and have ripped-abs in order to even consider being accepted by a person of the opposite sex...We are convinced that we look terrible in in our underwear because we only have Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch models to compare ourselves to and since nobody will stop and out of selflessness say "Damn, you look good today!" we'd never know it...We have to have the newest, fastest, most incredible and most award receiving SUV in order to fit in with the rest of the neighborhood...We have to have the biggest TV ON THE PLANET - otherwise people might wonder if we have any money at all...
And, getting back to the point, we are in so much of a need to have a connection with another person that we'll drink too much to "get the feeling", smoke cigarettes "only when we drink", experiment with illegal drugs, steal and lie.
We are so hurting for attention that we will do a handstand on the handrail of a hotel balcony to get that human connection that we are so desperately searching for...it doesn't even matter who we're getting the attention from.
We need attention so badly that we're killing ourselves to get it.
********************
"NORTH FORT MYERS, Florida (AP)
-- A woman fell to her death while trying to do a handstand on the railing of a second-floor hotel balcony, sheriff's officials said.
Molly Jerman, 23, of Cape Coral died Sunday.
While attempting a handstand, she toppled over and dropped to the hotel patio, according to the Lee County sheriff's department.
Just before she fell, she had called out to a friend, "Watch to see what I can still do," a police report said.
Foul play is not believed to be involved, officials said."
*********************
23 year old Molly Jerman called out to her friend "Watch to see what I can still do" before attempting a handstand on a handrail that couldn't have been any wider than a few inches; then plunged to her death...For what? Some attention? A few minutes of blissful recognition for, what? Anything? Certainly not validation, friendship? It sounds like she already had friends; one of which heard the cry for attention and then stood by and watched Molly Jerman (essentially) commit suicide.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not blaming Molly's friends' inaction for Molly's death. Rather; I'm simply pointing out that (IMHO) there's a certain level of "H0-Hum" that seems to be embedded in our reactivity to the world around us.
Let me explain...
Even though I was born in the late '70s and didn't really know what was going on until the early-'90s; I can look back now and see how much things have changed.
The way we relate to each other, our family members, strangers, men and women, the breakdown of communication as friendly banter turned to negotiation in a business atmosphere.
Single men don't ask single women out for a date while working in a professional workplace for fear of being sued for harassment...If a man has good fashion sense, a nice hair cut, smells nice, is polite and use words like "Please" and Thank You"; He must be gay...If a woman can bench her weight, curses like a sailor and wears kahkis; she must be a lesbian...Women, in general, believe that all men are swine, lazy, stupid-good for nothing - UNLESS - They are wildly rich...Men, in general, believe that all women are money-hungry-bitches with unrealistic demands - UNLESS - They are super models with an incredible rack...Children do not confide in their parents for fear of being controlled and punished unjustly...Parents do not scold their children for fear of being reported to child protective services or be viewed as an ogre or un-cool by their kids...Husbands and wives don't talk about their wants and needs as married couples until it's too late and no amount of talk will fix the leaks in the relation-ship. etc. etc. etc.
...And so the suffering continues down the line, Father to Son, Mother to Daughter, Husband to Wife, Stranger to Stranger until we are afraid to speak to one another for fear of offending another person with our opinion on Coke VS Pepsi.
We watch endless hours of "Reality" TV and we root for the type-cast "good guy" and hope beyond hope that he or she will be able to eat just enough roaches or drive a sports car off of a rooftop just fast enough to jump through the flaming hoop...We ponder whether the Bachelorette will make the right choice and dump the stalking wanna-be from Timbucktu or keep the hunky Fireman from San Diego...We are shocked when the latest hollywood royalty couple breaks up because one wants to have a baby and the other wants to have a stripper...We envy the rich and famous for their rich and famous lifestyles and their insanely expensive choices in home decor...We read magazines that do nothing more than make us feel like we need to lose half of our body weight and have ripped-abs in order to even consider being accepted by a person of the opposite sex...We are convinced that we look terrible in in our underwear because we only have Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch models to compare ourselves to and since nobody will stop and out of selflessness say "Damn, you look good today!" we'd never know it...We have to have the newest, fastest, most incredible and most award receiving SUV in order to fit in with the rest of the neighborhood...We have to have the biggest TV ON THE PLANET - otherwise people might wonder if we have any money at all...
And, getting back to the point, we are in so much of a need to have a connection with another person that we'll drink too much to "get the feeling", smoke cigarettes "only when we drink", experiment with illegal drugs, steal and lie.
We are so hurting for attention that we will do a handstand on the handrail of a hotel balcony to get that human connection that we are so desperately searching for...it doesn't even matter who we're getting the attention from.
We need attention so badly that we're killing ourselves to get it.
posted by Benji at 10:20 AM
1 Comments:
Exactly!
You get it!
Thanks AnnMarie;)
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