Hello out there, dear readers. I’m sorry to say that this week, I really don’t have much of a post for you. Over the weekend, we discovered that our cat is very, very sick with a really serious heart condition and all I currently have mental capacity for is going back and forth from the emergency clinic and trying not to get in a car accident. I even thought I might try watching and writing about something light and comforting like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, but I haven’t even achieved that, and it’s only 25 minutes long.
I sure do love horror films and stories, and I particularly appreciate when they make room for grief, when they feel like they have emotional depth, are about something real – through their fictional lens, we can grapple with some of the most difficult and vital aspects of living. But fiction is key here. When you’re thrust into an encounter (which you knew was bound to happen sooner or later, but you’re never ready for) with the reality of someone you love really suffering, and feeling like there’s so little you can do to help them, feeling like you’re failing them, it just breaks the world. It is a horror – crushing reality impinging, heartlessly on the comforting illusions of safety and security and agency that we need to hold onto to get through our lives without snapping.
Sadly, this week, I don’t have the power to dwell in those fictional horrors I find so rewarding. I don’t even have it in me to hang out in the comforts of a childhood Halloween special. I just have to deal with the reality in front of me and do what little I can for a lovely, loving creature about whom I care so deeply.
Sorry this post is a bummer. If you check in regularly, thank you so much – please keep doing so. Next week, I’ll be back with a movie or a book or something fun and spooky.
See you then,
Glen