I love action-adventure movies. Love them.
There’s just something about the slow-growing and building drama, the testosterone, the revenge, the good triumphing over evil, the hero or the heroine or both overcoming adversity and rising above it all, elements of a good action-adventure film that just do it for me. Everyone of us drawing breath, as we walk on this rock, and live our lives can relate to an action adventure movie.
Many of us actually live out action adventure movies in our day to day life.
Shit happens.
I know I have and continue to live out a real-life action-adventure movie!
The problem I have?
As much as I enjoy the drama and the intensity of an action-adventure film, even the drama and the intensity of the action adventures I have in my own life, is that I don’t enjoy the way in which I deal with the drama that comes with the intensity of my action-adventure life.
Unlike an action-adventure heroine or hero of a film, even though I try my best, I can’t always exactly, down to the letter, script out and storyboard how I’m going to respond to adversity or challenge.
One of the things we love about action-adventure films is that the hero or the heroine always are triumphant. Initially, no. Initially they get their ass kicked by some kind of adversity, challenge, or some other asshole ruining it for everyone. Our hero or heroine spends time in their fortress of solitude or Batcave or wherever it is that they plan, reflect, discern, and emerge ready to go. Our hero or heroine finds the villain, who is usually hiding out, because that’s what villains and jerks and bullies do. They hide out. And eventually our hero or heroine overcomes adversity. All perfectly scripted. All planned out. Completely different from the action-adventures of our lives.
It’s at these times, I stumble.
I make mistakes.
I haven’t planned or discerned properly in my fortress of solitude or Batcave.
I come out and challenge the villain and cathartically puke my emotional intensity all over the world, making a greater mess than prior to me entering my fortress of solitude or Batcave to ponder and reflect. It is when I am cathartic, howling at the moon, shaking my fist at the sky, being overly dramatic, acting like a Primo Uomo, I sometimes say and do the stupidest shit. Hurting others. Making myself look like a complete and utter buffoon. And then upon reflection I’m depressed, down, angry with myself, resentful leading to a spiraling downward cognitive and emotional processing that can lead to dysfunctional behaviors that simply kicked my ass.
This is a natural state for us heroes and heroines living out real life action-adventures. We make mistakes. We can be cognitively and emotionally compromised and overwhelmed. We turn to improvisational catharsis which feels good in the moment yet in hindsight is not as healthy or effective as we initially thought. The key here, like any good hero or heroine in an action-adventure film is to never give up, get up and live to fight another day.
The Bob Zima Blog 