CRAWDADS

 Never knew what a crawdad was when the huge best seller came out. Did not bother to look it up as the book did not appeal to me as a good read for me. Then the movie came out and I read enough to figure that the crawdad was some kind of bird or swamp creature which sang only when feeling safe, hidden from the eyes and ears of others, deep into a swamp. Still did not bother to define it better than that until I went to the movies and loved the movie.

So, what is a crawdad? It is defined as a crayfish. A fish that sings and is neither a dolphin nor a whale? Which is a mammal anyway. And what the heck is a crayfish? Defined as a freshwater crustacean resembling small lobsters and cannot tolerate polluted waters. Cannot say that I received great enlightenment via these definitions, but after watching the movie, and do not ask the ending, I understood the title.

The story takes place during the South from the 50's through the 70's and then very quickly via vignettes through a lifetime of the main character. It depicts a South deep in its prejudiced and backward thinking self, finding it easier to condemn that which is different, stands out from the run of the mill, than to reach out and aid a little girl left all alone. She bravely makes her way through life with the aid of a few others who bother to make and accept connections, outsiders themselves in a benighted southern town.

Human beings do not come out looking very worthwhile in the course of this movie. Even someone who appeared to reform has a remaining very ugly streak. His true colors are revealed unexpectedly, and contrary to Madonna's song, do not "come shining through". Were we actually those backwards thinking people, so low they speak of the girl as the "marsh girl", no identification as a human worthy of care, as a witch, a missing link, part wolf, but never human. Not unexpected, tragedy results, but also life continues and a good life, a contribution to society, to the bank of world knowledge ensues.

Good things can be hidden in deep swamps where protection provides for safety. That safe haven, though, is fragile, its borders leaky, and needs to be respected, given aid where and when necessary. Furthermore, were we actually those people? Manifestly so. Worse, we continue to be those people, and they are not limited to the south. Nope. Such progress we have made - or should I say retro-progression - that we have ever so triumphantly so valiantly achieved, that such attitudinal thinking is rampant, found all over, and worse than ever. So proud we should be!

Back to the real world. Was that movie an escape into entertainment? The theater, filled with decent attendance, was still and silent, save for some shock reactions, including me. It boggles the mind how backwards we can be - even when we are the ones bitten by that same benighted, backwards thinking.

Justice Thomas, a misplaced and mislabeled man, is now urging that the clock be wound backwards, taking away all rights not specifically present in 1873. That would include the "crime" of miscegenation, the marriage between races, particularly between Black and White. What would follow is a cascade of oppressive, regressive, criminally wrong rulings. But the weird thing is that Thomas is a Black man, his wife a White woman. Uh-oh! 

Does he not have eyes to foretell his own tragedy awaiting him (though truly, his wife is no bargain!) His mind cannot differentiate good thinking from bad, nor anticipate his own falling under the stomping feet of bigots and fascists.  Are the rest of us supposed to retreat to the deepest swamps we can find if we are to remain safe? 

We are our own worst enemies. Even though the correct vision is in front of us, we continue to endeavor to do our best to go backwards, to develop a hotel for the rich, where haven for others is found. We rush to take away rights, to strip them forcefully, meanly from others, and then find ourselves caught in the same net, hoisted with our own petards.

The warning signs of a devolving society are there, clear before eyes, though too many refuse the gift of sight, the application of wisdom and justice to our lives - and the lives of others. We see the world as belonging to "us", whomever that 'us' is, and it flows in and from all directions, for no group is immune to this path inevitably leading to violence and more violence and more... The picture is clear.

Even Mother Nature is angry with us, her reactions clear and strong. Mighty even. We suffer drought and heat now burning up the world. Or frightening powerful hurricanes and flooding rains. We mumble that maybe there is something to global warming and then proceed to downplay the actions necessary to overcome it - until it will be too late- or is it there already? We ignore the spate of bear attacks, the tragic results as we invade the bear's safe haven, the 'swamp' where he can sing.

 We ignore the different, the odd, the strange, the square peg in a round hole. Over and over again. The exact definition of stupidity and insanity, to do, repetitively, and expect something new to result. Doesn't work that way, folks. New and fresh thinking, understanding, painful as it might be - for all - for NONE are exempt, none are innocent of harm to others. Of nonacceptance of others. Of attitudes which are inimical to the growth of and respect for the need and presence of safe havens for all. In fact, the best safe haven, the best swamp, would be the world if only we were open to the possibilities of such a state of development. 

If only.

Read the headlines of the day, then despair.

Think again -

If only. 

IF ONLY.