Gravity Or Levity: I'm Probably Just A Downer

I like to sit on things.

After seeing a movie, I like to push it out of the forefront of my mind for a day or two before bringing it back and developing an opinion about it.

Same with pieces of art.

Same with sudden events of large cultural significance.


So now that I've had some time to chew on the concept of dead Osamas...

Like hearing about the events of September 11th for the first time, this will be one of those things where you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the initial reports. I was watching the end of "The Borgias." The Pope was trying to form an alliance with Naples. My wife was on the laptop and saw something on somebody's status update. I flipped to CNN for confirmation, then, because I wanted to see how my silly TV show ended, I flipped back. For the next several minutes I flipped between the two channels until "The Borgias" ended. I'm probably the worst person to watch TV with.

After that I mostly kept it on CNN. The Canadian news stations seemed uncharacteristically inept, CBS's graphics couldn't compete, and nobody else had a host named Wolf. I also stuck to Twitter and Facebook for instant updates and unthoughtful reactionary drivel.

My feelings on the whole "shoot Osama in the face" incident are mixed. Initially I was happy and relieved. Happy that we finally smoked the bastard. Relieved that he won't oversee and fund any more blow-up missions. But as I thought about it I became more uncomfortable with the celebratory reaction of our US nation.

I remember 10 years ago seeing footage of foreign America-haters stomping on our flaming flag, joyous about our 3,000 dead. I couldn't understand how one human being could feel that way about another human being. Those people are still jerks, but I now understand their misguided national pride. I know it's not the same thing, 3,000 civilian dead compared to one evil man, and I agree that we have the better reason to celebrate a killing, but I finally get it. I get it and I'm not going to reduce myself to that level of hate.

Osama Bin Laden--
I don't want to defile his body.
I don't want to kill his family.
I don't even want him dead.
I don't want to hate anymore.
These are things he would have wanted.
I'm bigger than that.

So we can still celebrate. His terror network has been hindered. He personally isn't going to hurt anybody anymore. (Even in his last seconds he used one of his wives as a human shield.) Some form of earthly justice has been served. The prospect of peace, at least temporarily, is shining in our faces. But I'm not going to celebrate death. That's religious extremism's business.

Do we mourn him? We can mourn a life lived so twistedly that he felt justified in murdering thousands all over the world. We can mourn the fact that he seized opportunities to do evil rather than doing good. We can mourn the wretched past, but, more importantly, we should celebrate a hopeful future.