Starfish

 "Why aren't you saying anything about other celebrities who act like this?"

For those who've never read things written the way I write, let me explain that I am getting ready to answer this question.  I will start this answer by laying a foundational story, so that my answer might be better understood.  If that feels like I am zigzagging or wandering off topic, all I can say is this is how I write.  If you bear with me, I will get there, I promise.

Back in the '90s, I discovered how living in a rural area outside a small community with no animal control or shelter to speak of, meant I would end up feeding quite a number of dumped or feral cats.  As their numbers grew, and the cost of trying to fix them at a regular vet's office was beyond my reach, I stumbled my way into animal rescue/shelter medicine.  Outside of being a parent, this is the single most rewarding and impactful endeavor I will ever have been part of, and I am grateful for those first strays who started me on this path.  I have learned many things over my years of bottle-feeding and fostering tiny kittens, to transporting countless cats, and quite a few dogs, to spay/neuter clinics, as well as learning to assist in the clinics themselves.   I think the biggest lesson I learned was how to break down a huge problem, into a manageable response.  The number of stray/feral cats in the United States alone, is astronomical.   If that had remained my focus, I never would've bothered trying to do anything.  I learned to focus one cat at a time.  Each cat that got fixed, each person in need of help getting cats around them fixed, made a difference.   Not on a global scale.  But on a scale I could see, because it happened in the communities around me.   Just like that starfish beach story, for every single cat who gets fixed, rescue/shelter workers have made a difference.  Every single altered/vaccinated cat matters.

I have lived a life directly affected by childhood sexual exploitation and re-exploitation.  I have witnessed this type of life being forced on and led by countless others around me.  The blame and re-exploitation that sexually abused children are destined to live is a heartache I have quietly carried alone, because the problem looks too big, too overwhelming to ever do anything about.  I guess I just got to the limit of what I could silently bear to witness.  So, combine that limit with the comedian who made me laugh for the first time in 3 years, and a millennial moment that was more life-changing than the sinner's prayer, and here I am, writing blog posts that make no sense to an awful lot of people, and are making a number of folks pissed.  Long answer, huh?  Quite typical, for me.

There is also one other small piece to this answer, a part of myself I must honor, no matter how stupid or naive or mistaken I may feel this part of me is.  This part of me believes that somewhere in Mr. Maron, there is a piece of him that could be reached, that could decide to stop harming those in my group that he has been choosing to harm.  Why does some part of me believe this?  I have no clue.  

Of course, maybe it's because he is someone who saw the overwhelming problem of stray/feral cats, and he took the time to do right by those cats, one cat at a time.