Making a Point

Someone recently said that I was a negative person, and I guess it's true. No sense fighting my own nature. This person didn't find my biting sarcasm as funny as I intended; I guess they would just have to be there to understand my frustration with humans. They said they wouldn't want to associate with me because of my negativity, and that's fine. I have what I need and people who love me and who know that this is just how I choose to talk about one of my jobs but isn't an accurate depiction of my character.

Before receiving this criticism, I felt like there was only so many ways I could describe how messy a theater can become or how much unnecessary effort it requires to clean an auditorium when people don't take out their own trash. I wanted to write about something besides pigs and popcorn and spilled sodas, but am so focussed on my broom that I don't have time to see beyond the mess.

I would like to write more stories about the good, decent movie goers who act responsibly and with respect for us 'little' guys, but it's hard to find the little diamonds in a pile of dirt. Take last night for instance. I walked in to clean at the end of There Will Be Blood and there was one guy in the auditorium. He was sitting on the front row, slouched down, popcorn tub on the floor beside him and a plastic Mountain Dew bottle where a soda cup should have been. I didn't pay him much mind until he stood and zipped up the front of his pants up. He actually turned away to tuck himself in. Seems this viewer somehow found a guy getting his head beaten in with a bowling pin erotic.

This was a big guy, bald, broad across the shoulders. He could have been a cop or a football coach on the outside, but inside he was some sick puppy. Maybe he got off on the danger of being caught. I didn't say anything to the pervert, he looked like he could kick my butt and I had no desire for him to put his hands on me after what he'd been touching. He passed me and nodded as though nothing had happened, and I went over and swept up the popcorn the perverted pig had spilled on the floor.

So when I say that we have a sick society where people simply don't care about anyone but themselves, I've got experience backing up my claim. Perhaps, if I worked in a hospital, I'd find some kind people to write about. If I wrote about our clients on my day job, I could tell you how stupid they are and how you shouldn't be trusting your money with financial planners who don't know how to access the Internet. But the theater is part of the service industry and as a culture, people today are very much like Daniel Plainview, the character from There Will Be Blood. They are selfish to the point of abusing other people. They grab what they can get and waste what they can't use. And some of them are more sick than others.

If I find something good to say about theater goers, I'll post it here. All I'm asking is that people take an honest look at their motives and their actions and answer for themselves whether they fall into this sick category. If you don't, God bless.