Right Here There’s a Line

You cross that line, we go from misunderstanding to… something else.

Today on the train there was a homeless man sprawled out on the seat so that no one could sit down beside him. I kind of found myself wondering what I thought about it. Standing on the train isn’t a big deal, but there were some older people who probably wouldn’t have minded sitting down. On one hand, he’s obviously been dealt a tough hand in life, so maybe he should be able to sprawl out on the train and take up seats if he wants to. On the other hand, he’s a citizen of the city and of society and shouldn’t be excused from showing common courtesy to our elders just because he’s down on his luck. I didn’t come to any conclusions except that I don’t want to be the kind of person who draws lines around what I think is acceptable and then ignore everyone else. But it’s hard.

Incidentally, there’s a lot of talk about drawing lines and crossing lines in the popular media, you may have noticed. Or at least… I’ve noticed it. Such as…

In general, lines are there for a reason, for safety, for security, for clarity. If you choose to cross the line, you pretty much choose to do so at your own risk. So why is it that the bigger the line, the greater the temptation to cross it? (Grey’s Anatomy)

Then there was The Line in Lost, and Lines in the Sand, the House episode. Lots of lines!

Anyways, speaking of popular media, I was thinking about exactly why I so enjoy shows… and I eventually decided that as long as there’s a character that I can relate to, I’ll be interested. Every so often, one aspect of a character will really hit home, really make me feel like I’m looking in the mirror. And we are all on a quest for knowledge and information… I think that on some level I’m watching for advice on how to handle situations based on what the character does. (Sounds kind of crazy, huh?)

Well, in those instances where I see part of myself in a character, I get pretty attached. Like Amelie. I actually feel a pang of reality when I watch that movie. She’s quite a bit more shy than I am, but overall, her nature and reasoning methods are very me.

Raymond: The time has come for her to take some real risks.
Amélie: Well yes, she’s thinking about it. She’s thinking of a stratagem.
Raymond: Yes, she likes stratagems, doesn’t she?
Amélie: Yes.

And,

Amélie: [whispering in theater] I like to look for things no one else catches. I hate the way drivers never look at the road in old movies.

Except, in my case, I hate it when people wake up in medical facilities (or anywhere) and the first thing they do is rip out all their IVs or anything connected to them. (Or, in Lost, they all took off their blood-donor band-aids. WHY?) Geez, come on! How do you know whatever’s hooked up to you isn’t keeping you alive? Seriously, watch for it. It happens in 24 and X-Men and a thousand other things. Mental!

Moving on! Cameron, of course. I haven’t a lot of her compassion but one thing we share is not being able to relay bad news or negative thoughts. I can hardly even criticize people (unless they’re not present… ehh…). I can’t tell people things they don’t want to hear. It’s bad. So I hide.

I’d like to be like Kate from Lost but I am nowhere near that cool! Haha! And I don’t so much relate to the characters of 24 as the situations of 24. In the general sense. Very general. Such as, “were I in a situation similar to this, would I compromise my morals?”

Well, enough jibba jabba.