Chapter 3 - we keep hoping Taylor's disdain for the region will be proven untenable, but, alas, there is only one good thing in all of Appalachia (or the part of it she sees) - Eric. Maybe (big maybe) the sheriff will prove to be all right. But everything else is toxic. It's a pretty place, yes, beyond the litter... don't these home owners care enough to properly dispose of trash...? But the really telling detail is the way people stare at the newcomer, the outsider. That was CREEPY. The kind of thing that makes people hate small towns and Bible Belt people. I love-love-love the way Charles challenges Taylor to find something positive about the place.
This raises another question for discussion: is there a point when searching to find one elusive positive thing about a region or a person can prove more detrimental than just declaring it(them) toxic and moving on?
Well, THAT is a question, all right.
An author I know will never go NEAR her childhood home town, ever, due to PTSD from the horrible abuse she suffered there. I'm pretty sure she could think of at least one positive thing about the town, the school, the region, but I have not asked her or challenged her to do so. How can it be detrimental to search for at least one positive in a place? Ah, ****rather than just move on****, there's the rub. "This place is toxic. Don't go there." vs "I will go back in search of at least one positive." And then... more toxicity. Now I'm wondering how many people live in places where NOTHING good can be found.
"Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life," the Psalmist said, and the region Taylor Beckett maligns in "High Kill" is one where the vast majority of its inhabitants live by that Bible. Or pretend to. Or they imagine they're living by it, but they've made a sacrilege of it, using the Bible to judge, condemen, justify bigotry... where is God with the hurricane to wipe out these places? Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back at the burning city. Apparently we are to believe that God sent Jonah to Ninevah to warn the people to reform or get wiped out by some "natural disaster" aka the wrath of God. We are told that our silence condones evil - if we see evil and fail to oppose it - so how does the lame-@ss "Free Will" premise get God off the hook for no longer sending locust plagues and waves of punishments (See: Moses in Egypt).......????????
Jesus had to shake the dust of his hometown from his proverbial boot soles (sandals).
When animals are tortured and killed, routinely, for sport, and the Bible-thumping animal abusers live long and prosper, for generations, what does this tell us about Justice, karma, and the life of the world to come........
I think I'll go read a fairy tale now, where ogres die and dragons are slain.
Back pedaling here:
There is some good to be found, if we look.
The question is whether there is enough good to counteract the evil.... right?
Bingo.
Ooooooh, well said, Carol. Well said. This comment may eventually get printed and framed.