Osama Bin Laden, Thor, and Princess Beatrice

Today, I'd like to share a couple of things my friends made, because they are awesome. The first one is serious, and the second one is REALLY (not) serious and involves the movie Thor.

The first comes from my dear and endlessly wise friend Maureen Perry (momoperry.com). This was her Facebook post when she heard about Osama Bin Laden's capture and execution:

In case you're on a mobile phone and can't read that, it starts with a Martin Luther King Jr. quote: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Then Maureen says "I wish for my country a muted response, a somber respect for a fallen enemy, a lack of gloating and a measured and humble demeanor. I wish for peace."

And then Mystery Science Theater's Bill Corbett and 45 other people liked it.

What Mo Perry says is an awfully-close-to-perfect encapsulation of how I think a lot of people felt when they heard of Bin Laden's death, including me. I found out from my husband, and as we crawled my iPhone browser for news, we both kept saying "it's so unsatisfying. No part of me is excited about this." It's not that I'm scared that there will be retaliation, or that I'm particularly wrapped up in the politics of it; it ("it" being the idea of celebrating the killing of Bin Laden) just doesn't work for me on a human level. If you hate Apple, and you go after Steve Jobs ... well, that's symbolic and all, but it doesn't really accomplish anything of value. Even if you succeed in killing Steve Jobs (which I hope you don't), Apple will go on, a lot of people will hate you, and you've just taken a soul out of the world. What, really, does that do?

During and after the royal wedding on Friday, "#proudtobeBritish" was trending on Twitter. After Osama Bin Laden's death, "God Bless America" was trending. Is it possible that these kind of events unify people in the same way?

My answer to that is yes, and here's why: I think people tend to want to be unified. People use these (admittedly major) symbolic events as excuses to feel like part of something. People want to celebrate together, and feel that energy of people celebrating everywhere. That's part of what has me defending my lack of triumphant glee here on my blog days later. I didn't get to be part of that celebration, and I feel oddly left out. I don't want to start a movement of un-celebration and be part of that, either. I just feel like I went to a party and sat in the corner and watched everyone do a lot of bad drugs. I don't need company, but I think I learned something.

I think.

How to process that lesson, I wonder? Should there be a Saturday Night Live skit making fun of the folly of celebrating, as Mo calls him, "a fallen enemy"? Should I be angry? Should I stay at the party or go home until everyone sleeps it off? One thing's for certain: going up and telling people "Hey, I think what you're doing is kind of stupid and here's why" isn't going to work.

Summation of thesis: Watching people celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden is like sitting quietly on the sidelines at a party where people are all taking drugs and having a fabulous time. There's an allure to what they're doing, but it's dark, and I don't want to participate.

And now for something completely different. One of these things is not like the other (click to enlarge):

 

It's Thor, naturally. Everyone else has an awesome hat on. :)

I have to say, I'm loving the evolving Princess Beatrice meme, but this one by my friend Chris Rogers (http://www.c-rogers.com) takes the cake. 

Also, I don't own the rights to that image, nor does Chris, but you know what? Sometimes, the art of the meme trumps copyright. I'm normally an evangelist about artistic rights and intellectual property, but it honestly doesn't bother me a bit in cases like this. That may be my next blog.