I am convinced that life is a never-ending, multi-million seasoned reality television show. And, it's not the glamorous MTV "welcome to my crib" type of reality TV; no, it's more like the trashy "I'm so smashed let my throw my one hundred dollar glass of chardonnay in your face and flip the table because you slept with my husband" type of reality TV.
The real question is: do we secretly relish in the the drama and actually help create all of our live's less than ideal moments, or is everything just a happen chance shit show?
The answer is: I have no f***ing clue.
In regards to evidence, there are some occurrences in support of either hypothesis.
One piece of evidence in support of the fact that we make drama for ourselves is gossip. People gossip all of the time. It's us actively getting out our tools, digging around, pulling up, dusting off, and, with sly grins on our faces, presenting all kinds of tumultuous drama to everyone else around us. Why? I think it is because when we get bored with our own lives, when we are lacking the adrenaline and anxiety that personal drama produces, we seek out other people's issues and make them our own, and proceed to talk shit left and right. Maybe it's just me, but if I'm being honest, as much as I preach the fact that I detest drama, I also enjoy it. It gives me something to stew over, something to occupy my thoughtless moments when I have nothing better to do. It's a form of entertainment. And it's very easy to become addicted to being entertained, so it would make sense that we would actively, and even subconsciously constantly search for our next fix of entertainment; in this case, drama.
On the other side of the spectrum, the evidence also suggests that everything is really just a series of unfortunate events. Take me for example: my family is a complete and utter mess (I mean, whose isn't really). But I certainly didn't come out of the womb asking to not grow up with two present parents, and end up living with my grandparents for a short bit, and eventually with my aunt. And I certainly didn't plan on the circus that such a divided and dysfunctional family would cause (do NOT even get me started about what holidays look like for me). But please, don't read that brief explanation of my familial life as a pity-party, or complaint, because, in all honesty, I would not have it any other way. I have so many people that love me and it could be a million times worse. The point is that sometimes life deals us unpredictable, undesirable, and entirely unfair cards, but we make the most it and wade through the cess pool of drama that ensues.
So again: do we make our own drama, or does it just sucker-punch us at any given moment leaving us breathless, dazed, and confused? Who the hell knows, but what I do know is that life is filled with conflict and we can choose to encourage it, avoid it, or neutralize it. My advice? Don't be the person who is constantly ready to throw a punch and flip a table, but also don't be the person who is so morbidly afraid of healthy conflict that you can only talk shit behind people's back. Be the person who can look life's drama in the face, hold on to your glass of chardonnay, count to ten, and avoid those million dollar reality TV moments. Because although those moments of immense drama are entertaining and make for relatively good stories, they often come to a disastrous end.
Cheers
- C.