Vanity thought #67. Intoxicating new world.

Nurse Jackie is back, in case you don’t know, it’s a TV show about a nurse working at some New York hospital named Jackie. Jackie has worked there for twenty years and has an impeccable reputation of the most dedicated professional who saves countless of lives everyday and who is worshiped as a living angel by some newer staff.

What they don’t know is that Jackie is actually a drug addict who supports her addiction by having sex with hospital pharmacist, what they also don’t know that she is also “happily” married with two kids.

Really troubling character – that Jackie.

The most worrying part of the story is that she is the heroine, that in this new world people are ready to accept deeply flawed personalities as role models. The rest of the characters are slightly better than her but only because they don’t do much yet.

The overall message is that if you want to achieve anything in this world you are bound to break many rules and giving in to the most shameful sides of your character is an inevitable trade off.

Jakie is trying to be good, she really does, but her back is killing her and so drugs are indispensable, and they have a nasty side effect of being addictive. She loves her husband but she likes to have sex with the pharmacist, too, though only for fun and the poor sod has no idea she has a family and believes he has a future with Jackie. She can’t care less in return and is somewhat happy that at least that embarrassing addiction is over.

It’s hard not to feel sympathy for her attempts to be good, but, as I said, there’s simply no escape for Jackie and millions of people like her.

I’m in two minds about this show – on one hand it is a brutal portrayal of reality behind the illusion of this world, on the other hand is entices people to settle for this new low. In the olden days stories like this inspired people to be better, now it’s pure nihilism. Which is better? Which is worse?

I’d say inspiration without turning to God leads to deeper, tighter bondage but people understand this very well and don’t expect much from cheap happy endings anyway. Nihilism, on the other hand, is healthy for spiritual life but if it leads to settling for prescription drugs and and normalcy of extra-marital sex then why bother?

Another show with a similar effect is House MD. Gregory House is also a brilliant doctor with unmatched track record and he is also a drug addict who can’t make any sense out of life. He knows all the usual human stuff inside out and realizes the futility of it all but he can’t find any working solutions. His attempt at building a family failed miserably and he wasn’t surprised by it. For people of his stature religion is long dead, too. So what is left? Nothing. He just tries to fill the void in his life with little everyday pleasures and saving lives.

In his case there’s the nagging feeling that there really is something more to life than that but he can’t quite put his finger on it. I bet off the screen his character prays a lot but has no words to put it out publicly.

Endless search for happiness in a place where there isn’t any.

These are examples of gifted people with the ability to see beyond the welcome smile of this world, people who actually see very sharp teeth behind it and the hopelessness of fooling themselves. In short, prime candidates for surrendering to the Lord.

In reality they resort to intoxication which, in a sense, is a form of suicide. The world has this effect on people – once you get to know it better you can’t stand it anymore, you wish you didn’t know it, didn’t know anyone, didn’t have any awareness of it, didn’t have any consciousness.

Why am I wasting time on this entertainment? Well, if it helps me to shed MY illusions regarding MY material prospects, it is time well spent, isn’t it? These are very valuable lessons for the occasions when I get too excited about this or that – don’t. It is not going to work, I’m just fooling myself. This world does not deserve too much attention and certainly none of the excitement.

The only valuable thing about it is the opportunity to chant the Holy Names, nothing else matters at all. Apart from that unique opportunity the world is only a giant distraction.

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