Thought for the Day

I hate a lot of strange things. Not that the things are strange themselves, but that it is strange to feel an emotion strong enough to name "hate" towards them. Yesterday, I added a new entry: People who use absolutes seriously in conversation with no intention of owning up to them.

For example, I watch Hoarders on A&E (warning, link has auto play) (If you have not seen this show, watch it, it will make you a cleaner person if nothing else!), a show about, well, hoarders, people who obsessively fill their houses with trash until they're climbing over piles of cat shit to get to their kitchen. I'm not exaggerating! In these shows, child protective services gets involved a lot, because several of these people have young children living in this filth. When this happens, the hoarder will always cry into the camera and declare that they love their children more than ANYTHING and they'll do ANYTHING for them.

Then, of course, when the crew tries to CLEAN their child's filthy room, which the hoarder made filthy by filling it with their junk and/or (mostly and) cats, the hoarder pitches a fit about their stuff getting thrown away an has a meltdown.

This is about where I hit the ceiling. How can someone stand there and say they love their children absolutely and will do anything for them, and then fill their baby's room with trash? How does that even get started? I know there's mental illness involved and I should be more understanding, but this is why I could NEVER be a therapist or a psychiatrist. If I was on that show, I would stand that hoarder in front of every piece of trash and say "This broken lamp or your child, choose." And when they started fighting back, I'd say "I thought you'd do anything for your child?"

Hoarder: "I would, but-"

Me: "There's no but in anything."

I guess I watch too much anime and read too much fantasy, because I think that, when you declare an absolute in seriousness, especially something like your dedication to your family, those shouldn't be empty words.