Magical Thinking

I have often heard people say that if I expect bad things, bad things will happen.  So, there is a part of me who always continues to believe good things will happen.  Kind of like knocking on wood.  Or praying.  I can't prove tree flesh or god have any influence, but I also don't want to be the one who caused something bad to occur because I didn't do some little thing correctly.  I think this is what is called "magical thinking." Does it work?  I can't answer that without risking divine or arboreal retribution.

Do I think anything in my blog posts since April 26 will have any positive outcome for the group I belong to?  At the risk of pissing off every skygod and superstitious backfire possible, I am going to be honest.  No.  I foresee Marc Maron in future animated movies, and Maron followers making it clear they have no problem with him interacting with their children.  Mostly, though, I foresee busy and distracted parents having no idea who their children are being exposed to in the media and at school, who their children are being taught to view as safe, who their children are interacting with online.  Children are interacting with all sorts of predators, right this second, and not on some dark web.  

Years ago, I watched the radical right purposely set up an exploitive situation with a child, in response to the women who came forward about roy moore.  I am going to copy that blog post as written, which I originally published in 2017, and is now archived.  There will be a link included to the interview with moore.  I like to think no more children will be offered up to predators.  But you know what that is, right?  Magical thinking.

"Interview

I have spent decades wondering how my father's cruelty could be missed by my family, how the adventist principal's behavior could be missed by a whole congregation, how so many humans can decide to not see the truth right in front of their eyes.

I have realized, over the past few years, that refusing to see the truth is a flaw shared by many humans. Today, I saw something that made this even more clear for me.

I have been watching the campaign for senator in Alabama closely. It has been difficult to witness. I have been preparing myself for the moment I may have to accept that a part of my homeland has voted a man like the adventist principal into my country's senate. I thought that moment would be awful. But what I just saw now is even worse than that moment may feel. I saw this:

Interview

This is so wrong, I do not have the correct words to describe how it feels to see this.

Right now, my heart is with those women who were harmed by that man when they were young. This interview will harm each of their hearts in a horrible way. My heart also breaks for that child in this interview, who has no clue how she has just been used. 

Tomorrow, I will spend any free time I have near the river. I have very little faith left in anything most humans might do."