Here I am once again trying to decide what to write for the day.  While I was at work, I had this great idea about the ethics of the situation with Blockbuster, but franklly, I’m just don’t have anything new to say about that.  Once the court hands down it’s ruling and we know what’s happening, then I’m certain to have more to say.

I thought about doing something political, but I’m not sure I could do that without being ill today.  That much sleaze just might be too much for me.  So no poliitical stuff.  Besides, I forgot my phone today and my daughter took it with her to Birthday Party 2.0.  Without all my different news apps, I might have to actually surf and stuff.  That seems like way too much trouble.

Which brings back where I started.  What to write?  What to write?  Hmmmmmm……  What to write?

Too much of that, and people are goinng to start thinking about Jack in the “The Shining”.  Speaking of “The Shining”, now I know what I’m going to write about.  Apparently there’s something to that “stream of consciousness” stuff.  I always thought it sounded too easy to be real.  Turns out, it’s not much more than typing while my mind wanders.  Basicaly, my natural state, but with typing added.  Where was I…?

Ah yes,  “The Shining”.  Contrary to what you’re probably thinking, this isn’t going to be a review.  It’s actually about something from work.  Maybe also something about people needing to be told what to think.  That last bit might be a bit more ambitious than I am right now.  To put that in perspective, there are damp sponges with more ambition (but less bacteria) than I seem to possess at the moment.  Darn!  Apparently the stream of my consciousness meanders quite a bit.  Where was I…..?

Ah yes, “The Shining”.  Today at work, a customer asked me to help him find a scary movie.  Pretty exciting story so far eh?  I asked him to tell me the scariest movie he had seen recently and he didn’t have a clue.  So I asked him to tell me what kind of scary movie he likes.  Does he like ghosts, slashers, fauxcumentaries, gory, creepy etc.  He didn’t have a clue.

I can already hear some of you saying, “What do you expect from someone who watches scary movies?”  Save your breath.  It’s the same for any other genre you can think of.  Even the nice people who insist on only watching “films” and would never deign to watch a mere movie ask me for the best film.  They don’t have any more of a clue than the scary movie guy.  That’s what happens when you think in terms of groups instead of individuals.

You see, it’s like this.  The group Scary Movies includes The Exorcist and Drag Me To Hell.  The group Films, includes Winter’s Bone and Rubber.  Belonging to a group doesn’t mean that all of the qualities of the members are shared, only the single characteristic that identifies the grouup.    To illustrate, The Exorcist is creepy, gory, atomsopheric, well written, brilliantly directed and has a stellar cast including Max Von Sydow.  Drag Me To Hell on the other hand is creepy, gory, atmospheric, well written, brilliantly directed and has a stellar cast.  Both belong to the Scary Movies group.  This is true of many things in various groups.

Mother Theresa and Warren Jeffs both belong to the group Christians.  Rick Perry and Mahatma Ghandi belong to the group, Reiligiously Inspired Political Leaders.  The list could go on.  I think I made my point here though.  If you want help finding a scary movie, it helps if you know what scares you.  If you’re looking for Mother Theresa, don’t ask for Religiously Inspired Political Leaders.  Warren Jeffs may not provide the same experience.

It’s something I do myself.  I ask people for their opinions all the time.  The secret is, I understand that just because several people told me that Paraormal Activity is the scariest movie ever, doesn’t mean it will be for me.  It just helps me guage what to give them when they ask for a Scary Movie.  The truth is Scary Movie is just a label.  The label isn’t the thing.  The label isn’t scary, the movies are scary.  That’s my great breakthrough for the day.  What I put in the group Scary Movies may not be the same as someone else’s group.  Each person’s group is valid for them.

So here’s my point.  The contents of the group aren’t the problem.  The problem is our label.  Instead of Scary Movies, we should use something more like, Winston Lake’s Scary Movie List.  Then I could have something to compare to Jane Doe’s Scary Movie List.  Comparing those list’s would give me a better idea what to reccomend.  Just using  Scary Movies is too broad.  Saying Christian, or Politician or any other broad generic label isn’t really saying anything at all.

The label isn’t the thing, but the greater the resemblance, the more useful the label.  People use labels as a shorthand to describe the world around them.  It’s only when we want to share our world that we understand the problem.  Each of us uses our own shorthand.  Any similarities are purely coincidental.