Labour Day

I woke up to the shocking news of Steve Irwin's death. I'm not going to go on at length about this, Steve-O knew the risks he was taking in his job, although the stingray is not apparently a killer in normal circumstances. But I was a huge fan of Steve's work, both his amazing TV programmes, he certainly educated me about the less lovely of our planet's creatures, but also of his conservationism. I hope that the impact of his life will continue long after his death which has genuinely, deeply affected me and I'm sure many others.

Yesterday I was moved to tears by one TV programme and shocked by another.

'Rosie's family cruise' was the teary one. Families composed of same sex parents and their children came together to love and support each other on a cruise that was organised by Rosie O'Donnell. As the families stepped off the ship in Nassau in the Bahamas, a protest by local people - so think all black people, another section of society who themselves experience prejudice - held up placards with such hideous messages as 'If you are openly gay, stay away.' This was a brutal slap in the face to the families who were holidaying away from such atrocious attitudes. The onboard priest who we later saw marrying a couple, stood and sang a hymn of praise with the protesters to show that her worship was not limited by their attitudes.
Some of the parents wanted for their children not to see the display of hatred in the name of God, others shrugged and said,
'That's what we have to deal with in our everyday lives, they have to learn to deal with it.'

Later, when the families left the cruise many gazed back at the ship, not quite wanting to leave the place where their life choices and experiences were the norm and where many for the first time had found support without judgement.

Where would you draw your own personal line for offensiveness? Well, yesterday evening I found out where mine would be drawn.
The 'film' 'The Aristocrats' was on TV. There had been some curiosity about this because we knew it was about comedians talking about and telling a single joke. The thing started. Comedians appeared on screen, ready, with their comedian heads on, so you are then ready to laugh. Only they didn't say anything funny. Oh dear, I have a low boredom threshold, I don't require high adventure all the time, I can be engaged quite happily with good cinematography, or something curious, something to think about. But there was nothing engaging here, so I started my crossword. And then things turned unpleasant. Now the talking heads were 'telling the joke' except it wasn't a joke, it was simply an attempt to shock. It shocked me, I felt assaulted in fact. I can't see any humour in incest, rape, sexual violence, I truly can't see how those can be presented in a way that makes them funny. And yet these people were simply piling vileness on top of vileness, each trying to outdo the other. I was able to block it out for a while by reading a poignant short story by Joyce Carol Oates, but then it was back, like an attack.
Finally I was able to escape, I went upstairs and the only thing that could take away the unpleasantness of it all was watching the French channel, more talking heads but in French and about communism.
If you have seen this programme and can explain the humour to me, please do, if you are a self-medicator and fancy the challenge, then please let me know how much you had to take before you could find this amusing.

That was last night however, this morning I will mourn the late great Steve Irwin along with the planet, quite literally.