Drama….for your momma
I love this word. Seriously. It gets thrown about so much in our current culture, it warrants its own discussion.
I’ve come to a point in my life where I hear this word and it throws up a huge caution sign. The minute I hear someone mutter “I hate drama” I can almost sense that there’s drama coming. Granted, this isn’t always true, but it seems that MOST of the time, the people who claim to hate drama are the ones perpetuating drama. Of course, this leads us to ponder another point: how does one define drama?
To me it seems like drama has come to mean anything that causes one social discomfort. Well, shit…..welcome to life. Has it been a fun journey? This is what people do. We are constantly in conflict with one another. For purposes of power, control and our general sense of ourselves, no two people will ever be perfectly in sync. Hence…..drama. Certainly, there’s a level of maturity implied when discussing drama- the implication being that those who are “dramatic” are less mature than those who aren’t. But how do we account for situations that have a general appearance that does not align with reality?
This is where we get into trouble. Everyone will have an opinion….yes, the whole “opinions are like assholes” routine….and almost everyone will align their own perception of a given situation with the prevailing opinion that they hold. In many instances, any controversy or disagreement that occurs over this given perspective will, no doubt, be considered drama. And to provide comfort to ourselves, we will simply say “I don’t need your drama”. But how often is this perceived drama really a result of the opinion that is held? How many of us are truly open to what is going on around us? How many of us are truly aware that deep below the surface of ourselves, we are generally the same dirty specimen of human life that everyone else is?
I don’t think it’s drama that we need to be concerned about. I don’t think it’s the general conflict that we encounter with others that we need to be concerned about. What we lack, and what truly undermines any efforts we make to avoid this drama, is humility. More social commentary on the fact that we, as Americans living in this current culture during this current social climate, are spoiled children with no sense of individual responsibility and no sense of our own humanity.
There’s no such thing as drama. It is a myth that has been defined by the culture of MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, et al. Sadly, I, myself, have embraced this culture and taken my own place within its seedy grasp. So perhaps, I am drama personified. Or perhaps I’m merely fascinated by the new perspective on social interaction such technology and instant access to the social climate such tools provide.
Whatever the case, I don’t believe in drama as any tangible reality. Merely a creation of human beings to make being right that much easier.