Waandering Along the Path: Right Speech

In the past I've failed at right speech sometimes when I wanted to be "cool".  When I was fourteen my family was visiting friends who had two teenage daughters older than me, and desperate to be "cool" I let them tell me the entire story of the Hitchcock movie "Psycho".  Believe it or not, my family was staying at a motel at the time, because we'd just moved from Virginia to California.  I wouldn't take a shower the whole week.  To this day, I've never seen the film, though a few years later I tried with my first husband.  Even on TV, it was terrifying, and I had to turn off the set and sleep with the lights on that night.

Okay, I was fourteen.  I'll cut myself some slack on that one.  But in my forties, I let my husband persuade me that Jodi Foster in "Silence of the Lambs" was so amazing, I needed to see it.  He had already seen it with his friend Ron, and promised to tell me when to close my eyes.  I had to fork over $80 to a therapist to talk about the movie, it disturbed me so much. 

Here is what I wish I had said, "I'm afraid of these kinds of films for all kinds of reasons.  I'm going to be haunted by the images in a bad way.  I wonder if supporting these films doesn't cause copy-cat crimes.  They probably are too suggestive to disturbed individuals.  Kids will inevitably see these and not admit it to an adult who might help them process their reactions.  There is no good reason for this film to be out in public."

I didn't have the nerve.   But I have not been convinced into seeing another horror film.  I've missed all the cult favorites, and I don't really care.  I'm relieved the images are not floating around in my mind.  I don't care about what is true.  I've heard a lot of stories as a counselor in safehouses for battered women.  I know what the world contains.  Kowtowing to the culture is not my idea of being cool.  In the name of cool we don't speak up when we should.  If we said no, others might as well.  Who cares if the actors will be up for Oscars?  Not me, not any more.  Count me out of the conversation.  And by the way, don't tell me the plot when you see it.