The Mechanism

The stories that I'm mainly drawn to are dark in nature. I absolutely love one film, which is exquisitely dark, called Mystic River. Good does not prevail. Not even close. 

My previous post - the short story "Lost Souls" - is also void of a happy ending. These tales are more interesting and complex, in my opinion.

The bitterness allows us to long for the other end of it. Our hope mechanism is triggered. Writing the story about Ralph losing his wife, his job - and his wallet - was more about being hopeful than dark and mysterious. 

Making Ralph down on his luck is a great example for me to live by. Don't make his mistakes. I can do better. 

Cleveland is kind of like Ralph. We just lost the Cavs a little prematurely, the Indians are nine games below .500, and the Browns are...the Browns. I love Cleveland sports, but in no way does it dominate my everyday life. For many, it does, and last night was particularly devastating. 

Our championship drought makes for a damn good movie (actually, it has already been made - Major League). It's a dark tale with lots of heartache and no happy ending. 

But we do have the longing for hope. It's there. The question isn't whether you're content with misery, it's how you handle it. 

We can chalk it up to a curse. We are known as the Mistake on the Lake. Our main export is crippling depression. 

You can take the weak, dismissive, "There's always next year," approach. 

Many will bemoan the "inevitability" of LeBron jumping ship. 

Here's my take:

This is exactly the kind of story I love. We came up short and are left devastated. Like Ralph. There's a sequel waiting to be written. It may very well be just as dark, frustrating, and heart breaking as the first one. 

But the mechanism has been triggered. I can sense the hope. Can you?