Star Trek, Mission Impossible, The Untouchables and voice of audacity in the face of apathy

This was the blog I wanted to write:

 

I loved "I love Lucy when I was young" I thought Lucille Ball was brilliant. It also didn't hurt that Desilu her production company was responsible for Star Trek, Mission Impossible and The Untouchables. Desilu later became Paramount Television. Lucille Ball was one of the more popular and influential stars of her era and had one of the longest Hollywood careers. She died today in 1989

She also coined two of my favourite phrase:

Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead.

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.

 

I fail on the last part regarding lying about my age, there is no point. I am 38, and I agree whole heartedly with the comment on falling in love with a red head.

If Marilyn was the iconic blond, and Bettie Page the iconic dark haired beauty then for me Lucille Ball was the iconic red head of the 1950's, she was good at whatever she turned her hand to and she also appreciated the most important thing you can do is to love yourself. She was a model, comedienne, actress and entrepreneur. If you swap actress for dancer then we aren't that dissimilar.

 

This is what I feel compelled to say:

 

Hyundai apparently believe that showing a man trying to taking his own life in one of their cars is good marketing. It shows the pipe attached to the exhaust leading into the car, and the man sitting there waiting to die as he inhales the fumes.

 

A few moments later the garage lights come back on, and the man opens the garage door. The tag line is, “The New ix35 with 100% water emissions.”

 

Yes, very tasteful. Nothing like making fun of people with mental illness, is there Hyundai?

 

I can imagine some of the other ideas that Hyundai and Innocean are also discussing right now:

• A cancer patient is shown dying in a hospital bed, and asks for one last drink of water. They wheel them out to the ix35′s exhaust pipe and instruct them to drink away
• A family in a drought ridden country is shown holding their cupped hands under the ix35′s exhaust, dying for a drink of water.

Seeing such a vivid depiction of the end of a man’s life — to sell cars — is not just in poor taste. It is cold, callous, thoughtless, and even mean-spirited. As though human life is worth so little, we can demonstrate someone failing at taking their own life to help promote the attributes of this stupid pile of metal. A Hyundai.

It is distressing to anyone who has lost someone to suicide, I know it made me think of Adrian's last moments. I cannot imagine how it made people feel who had lost a loved one to this method.

My husband never drove a Hyundai  thanks to that advert neither will I! 

 

Today's dress is a circle skirt, because sometimes we have to come full circle. The print is called "city" and it depicts scenes of city life with greens, blues and purples overlaid. Imagine a creative way of depicting a cleaner city, perhaps due to lower car emissions  I don't need to say anything else about why I chose this dress today. 

Dress: 1950s halterneck circle skirt dress in City print in Green by Vivien of Holloway

Shoes: Aldo

 

I Am Alive

By: Jeff Shuck

I may have lost my brother, my sister, my parent, my child, my spouse, my friend, but I am a survivor of the long dark night of unspeakable loss, the unbearable pain, of my own darkness... and I am alive.

 

I am unwilling to stand idly by and allow shame to defeat love, or silence to defeat action.

I stand for the enlightenment of a society that would hide from suicide, that would avoid, that would pretend... and I am alive.

 

I am unwilling for my perseverance to be in vain, 

unwilling for the passing of my loved one to be in shame. 

I loved them more than I loved myself and their life will have meaning in my action. I am resolved..., and I am alive.

 

In a world blinded by the pursuit of pleasure, I am here to say that people are in pain. 

In a world rushing to get ahead, I am here to say that people are being left behind.  

In a world obsessed with the value of the market, I am here to speak for the value of life..., and I am alive.

 

This will be no quiet fight, for I am the voice of audacity in the face of apathy.  

I am the spirit of bravery in a world of action.  I am a commitment to action in the face of neutrality. 

 

I am out of the darkness; I am into the light. And, I am alive.

My Promise

Someone I loved very much has ended their own life. I will never truly know 
all that was happening in their mind that brought them to that tragic choice.  However, there are things of which I can be reasonably certain... 

— If they were here, even they could not fully explain their mindset or answer all of my questions. 

— In their state of mind, they could not have fully comprehended the reality of their own death. 

— They could not have fully appreciated the devastating impact their suicide would have on the people in their life. 

As such, by their last act, they made their most tragic mistake, unknowingly 
creating unparalleled pain in the hearts of those whom they most loved. 
The person I lost is beyond my help now in every way but one: 
I can help them by working to ease the pain they have caused 
and by not allowing their most enduring legacy to be one of 
tragedy. 

They benefit from this help whether or not I perceive them as welcoming it, in the same way that we help the aggressor whenever we nurse his victim—by minimizing the damage he has caused. 

As a result, each and every day, I can help the person I lost by... 

...enjoying life. 
...smiling and laughing. 
...not dwelling in feelings of sadness or remorse. 
...loving others. 
...taking new steps in life toward positive new horizons. 
...helping those who feel their loss to do the same. 
...and, in short, not letting their mistake continue to create sorrow, neither in the world around me, nor in myself. 

I will try to picture my lost loved one asking me to do this every day—to please help undo the damage they caused in whatever little ways possible. And I promise that I will.