Needing that Lock

I think most people can say they have been a witness to the celebration that comes from blowing things out of proportion. In fact I think it runs rampant nowadays. I'm a big movie buff, but I can hardly stand TV anymore, it makes me nauseated the fanatic way people react to certain situations.I question, why is it that people feel the need to make something small into something epic? I think it comes from a deeper vault of feelings that lay hidden, but are raging to get out.


I had an experience like this when my family got into a huge blowout over animal nipple placement. My family has this website, and in it my brother-in-law writes a humorous column about his thoughts on life. One day he wrote this little script about how he went to the zoo and noticed that so called smart animals such as monkeys and elephants have higher nipple placement and that dumber animals such as cows and horses have lower nipple placement. Well, little did he know that right at this time my sister was struggling to keep her horse who was on the verge of death alive, and she was deeply offended at his comment, actually no one knew except one other sister who proceeded to get on the website and tell my brother that he was a brain damaged animal. I was then told to get on the website and make a comment. I got on and there were over fifty posts. It had gone from brain damage animals to Nazi control, then to politics and religion. My first impression was to make fun of everyone, then I decided to quietly log off. I realized there were deeper issues and past grievances going on. I know now there was another reason for my silence. I'm not Alexander Pope. How he was able to take a two family squabble and turn it into a social commentary, mocking the serious attitude people had over superficial things is amazing. He incorporated what pride and vanity can do by bringing in some of the most prideful characters in history. He then gathers in the reader by making everyone a player in the epic, letting us know how we contribute as a society to the spectacle of drama. How we are called upon to give our own opinions and take sides, as if we have the power to tip the scales to what is right and wrong " Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your chief give ear/ Fays, Fairies, Genii, Elves, and Demons hear!/ Ye know the spheres and various tasks assigned/ By laws eternal to th' aerial kind." In the end it is extremely humorous, but at the same time it gives us a look at the human condition and how we crave drama, adventure, and the need for a battle even if it's over something like a lock of hair.