Reflections On The Glorification Of Stupidity.

A once successful singer marries a once rather famed TV presenter. Lately, he has reached his fame mainly with a “benefit” initiative that brought him a lot of Bono-like notoriety. His wife is, as said, known on her own.

They have, I think, two children. But husband and children is not exciting enough, and the wife runs away with another, far more famous rock star. The latter is also drug addict, and certainly unstable.

The two – actually, the three – start the usual war for the custody of the children. The wife almost dies of an overdose, but I can't remember if this is before or after the famous rock star commits suicide. Doesn't matter, because the original father manages to take the children anyway. But wait, I think first the mother dies of booze or drugs, too; it could be after losing the children, though, but I am not sure, because these aren't the people who say “let's try to be responsible, we have children”. The children she has – two from the not-so-fanous singer, one from the worldwide famous one – all have names you would give to cats, or rather names that children would give to cats.

The not-so-famous singer then gets the children, and actually adopts child number three, the one of the famous singer who has committed suicide. The famous singer, say his friends, would have rolled in his tomb knowing that his “enemy” got his own child. Could have avoided suicide, you might say. It's not so surprising the only father of this triangle who has not taken his life should get the children, is it now?

Predictably, the children grow up emotionally wrecked. Let us count: two of them had mama and stepfather taking their lives through suicide or excess (note the word, by the way), the third both his natural parents. The percentage of drug addicts at some time or other among the parents is thus never below 50%, with peaks of 100%. You can call this a very “interesting” family background.

The poor children have to cope with the mess, because only the idiots refuse to acknowledge that the sin of the fathers – and the mothers – will be visited upon the sons. At least one also becomes a drug addict; almost dies of an overdose – like her mother – but then recovers. Or says she does. She dies suddenly some days ago, for reason not easy to ascertain, probably simply medical ones because there are no obvious signs of suicide or overdose. She leaves children also named like cats. The sins of the fathers and the mothers have visited the children and, at the same time, grandchildren. You read all the names in the newspapers, and think the articles is about an institution for abandoned cats. No one seems to link the names – and the entirely de-Christianised environment they betray – and the tragedies.

I do. Go on, call me a “holy card face”.

This further tragedy in the family – I almost forgot: at twenty-five the young woman was already at the second marriage; but again the children of drug-addicted, suicides or both together rarely tend to make good marriage material; at least bar a conversion of which there is no trace here, as indicated by the children, all named like cats – leaves more children irrimediably scarred. The father expresses his sorrow, and seems not to have the faintest idea whence all these tragedies come. He seems to live in a planet where bad actions and their consequences are entirely disconnected, and tragedies just happen; mind, the last tragedy might have simply “happened”, but human actions are what caused all the rest.

The public is informed of this Hiroshima-style family, and you don't read anywhere a word of warning; I do not say a warning concerning the obvious truth that the sins of the father – and the mothers – will be visited upon the sons; but not even concerning the immense tragedy of having people taking drugs, quarrelling, committing suicide; leaving behind them people who take drugs, quarrel, and perhaps will, one day, commit suicide.

Not one word of warning. Too “judgmental”, you see. People simply register the facts, and consider them parts of the “lifestyle” of “celebrities”. What hell the life of such people must have been, must still be if they aren't such children that they can't even feel the pain of an adult, the public does not care. This is, most emphatically, not a cautionary tale. An excuse for easy emoting, at most.

It will be weeks before the causes of the death of the young woman will be made known. We can only hope and pray she died of natural causes, and at least, so to speak, halfway in the grace of God.

Looking at it coolly, the chances aren't great.

Let it be a cautionary tale. The sins of the fathers, and all that.

Mundabor