One Of Ours

    So there is some guy on the Bay Bridge this morning with bombs or guns and his poor child or suicide or upset and decides to act like the Asshole of the Century and the bridge is closed and everyone is all het up.  The Bridge would be pretty crowded with un-vehicled people if we all took this action when things weren't going our way.  I feel that utter lack of coping skills has become a huge societal issue.
    I get a text from my sister, Aunt, to this effect  : " Some nut sac on bridge.  not one of ours.  i repeat.  not one of ours."  This is a ...larger issue, wherein we are...relieved that it is not a direct blood relative.  Entirely possible, potentially messy.  Anything goes with a family chock-full o'nut sacs : bombs, hangings, death threats, overdoses, jail, cop chases, 5 point restraints - wicked shit.  But almost commonplace.  To the point of just needing to identify any nut as "not one of ours."  Enough crazy will wear you down.  Or out.  Or make you want a DNA test.  Now that is one test I would study for...
     The more... global among us would posit that yes, the nut sac on the bridge this morning is, indeed "one of ours" - he is a tortured human being on the brink of disaster and what, if anything, drove him to such desperation and ass-holiness ?  We are all related in this big family of man.  His pain is our pain.  He just acts his out on the bridge with weapons.  And his innocent child (this is where he loses all sympathy points : leave the kids at home when bent on self-destruction, you grandiose selfish beast).
     Like it or not, we exist in 1 million little communities of one.  We can live our whole lives, really, never having to make human contact, if we so desire.  Progress has resulted in a global reduced attention span, a grossly magnified sense of entitlement - and the utter inability to take a curve ball.  If something takes longer than 15 seconds, I won't wait !!  If a solution isn't immediately apparent - I won't think !!  If something is upsetting me emotionally, I won't reflect and react normally !!   I can't draw on my store of strength and inner resources because I have none !!  Not a one.  Matter of fact, I refuse to feel pain, inconvenience, irony, frustration, or despair.  If I start to feel upset, I'm taking you all down with me.
       We have lost one of the coolest things (besides my favorite, the opposable thumb) that sets us apart from the "lesser animals" - empathy, and the ability to actually communicate with one another.  Didn't Marvin Gaye tell us that"... we are all sensitive people...so much to give..."  Electronic communication  requires no personal responsibility : the ultimate hit and run.   When we do it with cars, we get in trouble.  But we can say any damned thing we want, as long as we press "send" afterwards.  When early man gathered in the local square to commune, you can better believe they weren't just calling each other whores and then running away.
   Don't get me wrong - I hate people just as much as the next guy.  But I still have the emotional equivalent of the opposable thumb.  I DO want to put the "human" back in "humanity".  Otherwise, all we are left with is...."-ity".  So the freak on the bridge, as Aunt so shrewdly pointed out, wasn't "one of ours".
     But he was one of ours.