Gary Lucero Writer

I've spent a fair amount of my life regretting things I've done, or being depressed for any number of reasons, and it's never fun. Depression and sadness are things I wouldn't wish on anybody, and yet it's something that is often beautiful in an odd way to behold when viewed on our TVs, on the big screen, in song, when read in the pages of a book, or experienced in a video game.

Why do we find something that no one wants to experience firsthand so appealing in a fictional context? Is it some terrible aspect of humanity where we enjoy seeing others suffer, or do we have a need to feel compassion the same way we wish others would feel it for us?

I'm not sure, but I do find myself expressing my own sadness in poems and stories, and when I reread them, there is a certain beauty there. And when I think of my favorite music, films, TV shows, books, and video games, it's often the ones where the characters experience the most hardship that appeal to me most.

Maybe these things teach us how to feel for others, how to understand that everyone has hardship, and that all mankind feels depressed now and again.

And maybe, we feel a bit thankful when the fictional person is worse off than us.

Ultimately, though, we crave to see and feel human emotions, to understand how humanity works, and we hope that by doing so, we'll understand ourselves a little bit better.

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What drives people to scrub the grit from between the tiles on their kitchen floor?

To get up and face work each day. To get married or divorced. To have kids. To fight in wars. To talk to someone they don't know at the supermarket. To write. To open their hearts to someone new. To lie. To cheat. To steal. To be kind.

It amazes me that we continue to do and to move and to grow despite everything that happens to us.

And it's not like human beings are distinct in this respect. Insects, plants, and animals are similarly resilient in their ability to continue regardless of their circumstances.

This makes me believe that life has no choice but to continue. It is boundless in its ability to thrive even in the face of disaster, war, or pestilence.

Which is why I don't believe life is sacred. If it were sacred, no one would die. No person would hurt another. Something would guard life, keep it safe, and we would live forever.

Instead, life is necessary. It has no choice but to continue, to attempt to thrive, attempt to exist, attempt to persist.

It's a force to be reckoned with, for good and for evil.