Everyone’s gone (back)to the movies

It’s nearing election time and same old classics are showing and drawing a crowd

Have you ever come out of the cinema only to adjust your eyes to new light?

How blinding it feels.

Hits your senses like crazy.

You have no choice but to adapt.

You’ve been watching your movie for so long, you’ve gotten a little dopey, drowsy.

Dozed off maybe.

You’ve not only become absorbed in the plot but you’ve also become accustomed to

BEING KEPT IN THE DARK.

It feels safe, comforting.

But it isn’t really.

The big wide world is still out there, isn’t it?

You’ve just been watching a movie.

In March 2020, many of us ‘left the cinema’.

As lockdowns and masks came into force, it was a massive wake up call.  A stark realisation we’d been so enthralled by the movie, we’d gotten lazy. Distracted.

Our brains had been dimmed. Numbed.

As we ‘left the building’, we vowed we’d never go back.

We had our eyes truly opened.

Wide.

It wasn’t about being plunged into darkness but rather having senses saturated by new excruciating light.

How we smarted, struggled.

How we adapted pretty damn sharpish because we had to.

How we called to others.

“Come on! See the light! Wake up!”

Four years on, as we approach elections, some of us - many of us - have gone back to the movies. Returned for another look. Some might say, a proper gander.

I get it.

Drama sells.

Whilst there are the same familiar characters and safe scripts, that give you the warm and fuzzies (in that sick trauma bond kinda way), there are also new ones.

Promising new actors.

Movies you’ve not seen before.

Folks…….

It’s time to leave the building.

The last time you left the cinema, you were turfed out on your arse.

Don’t wait for that cold, harsh light of day again.

The one that hurts, pierces, stings.

Fucking burns.

The next scamdemic.

The next ‘war’ or manufactured crisis.

The next political ‘scandal’ when your new hero is revealed - surprise surprise - to be the same as all the others.

To some right now, Farage is politics’ new ‘Darling’.

Like Julie Christie in the 1965 classic he is swanning about London on photo shoots, stroking egos, flavour of the month. (Although I’m sure he doesn’t look as good in heels and a mini dress)

To others it may be Starmer with his Vicky Pollard “yeah but no but yeah but no” take on what a woman is.

The worst ‘I told you so’s are the ones you told yourself.  The ones your intuition whispered, SCREAMED even, yet you chose to override.

Guys, it’s time to leave the cinema.

Adjust your eyes NOW.

LEAVE.

Spoiler - It was a shit film anyway.