Downton Distraction

Seeking respite from the horrors of Buffalo and Uvalde, we decided to take two big risks; 1) go to  the movies 2) go to a mall.  Both movies and malls have been used as shooting galleries in the Divided States. At least they were safer than schools which have been shot up 600 times in the last 20 years. Of course, I'm used to danger. I taught in public schools before and after Columbine.

The ongoing  divisionary  tension rampant in the DSA ricochets between ballots, bullets, babys and borders. Somehow, some way, we gotta get out of this place.

Let's all go to the movies.

For our movie, we chose a very popular public dream called Downton Abbey; the New Era. We were looking for the Crawley family and the other cherished characters both upstairs and downstairs to give us a serving of continental comfort. We didn't come to the movies for a celluloid tale of drama, horror or risk, we have enough of that in real lfe just going to and from the movies. We wanted low risk, anachronistic fantasy to sweep us away from the ongoing tension of modern life in the Divided States so we cinematically travelled  to Southern France along with the Crawley's and returned to Grantham where nobody was shot with anything other than a movie camera.

The movie itself is just another episode of Downton except on a bigger screen with louder music and an even richer color palette. We got what we expected.

I escaped for quite awhile. I felt relatively safe. Lynn and I  made up 20% of the audience. We were well spaced in a large theater. We sat in reclining seats. I almost got away.

I did have a distracting thought, however, at points when the movie became even slower than usual. I noticed a Now Hiring sign when we came through the unhardened doors. I began to consider the possibility of working at the theater maybe 20 hours a week just to get out of the house and make a little scratch off money. I figured what the hell. When we leave the theater, I'll check it out. I can manage people and I can make popcorn.

The movie ended... a solid 8.Disbelief 80% suspended.

We left the theater. We headed towards the area where the Now Hiring sign was flashing. Hmmmmmm. I hesitated and got this image of myself confronting an Elvis imitator carrying an assault weapon entering the theater and blowing me away after I had called 911 and had begun trying bravely to separate him from his weapon. I imagined myself bleeding out on the ground to the sound of gun shots and wondering "why the hell did I take this job?"

We walked past the sign out of the theater out of the mall into our car into the reckless driving on the overcrowded, enraged expressway until we finally made it to the safety of our home and turned on the news to discover that the stock market had rebounded, the war in Ukraine had continued as had the shortage of baby formula and the rocket launches in North Korea.

The Downton distraction was gone.

I took yet another nap.