I like the song Humpty Dumpty by Aimee Mann, because it actually tells the truth. This woman is broken beyond repair, and nothing this guy can do can fix it. Most of the time, we don't get the truth. In the movies, the crippled always walk by a miracle, the single always get love, the mentally ill always get well. Even if that doesn't happen, some whole individual gets some valuable lesson from their pain.

But in reality, it doesn't work like that, no matter how much we'd like to pretend it does. People's minds, bodies, and souls can be broken beyond repair. Sometimes people get here broken, sometimes they just break, but people end up broken all the time. We try to pretend it doesn't happen. We hide the dying in hospitals, not acknowledging that they exist, we don't build enough places for the mentally ill to live-the institution is full, the group home is full, and the families don't want to be reminded of the fact that someone is crazy, that they are broken beyond repair. We give the people whose souls are broken platitudes, and blame them, because we simply can't deal with the idea that people can be broken.

I'm sure some people have the bravery to face this. I'm sure that someone that people listen to will alert everyone else someday. However, those are probably foolish hopes. Noone wants to give up their safe bubble in which only reality TV and fucking matters. Maybe the only people who know that people can be broken are the ones that noone will listen to, because the mere knowledge of this taints them in the eyes of others in some way. I don't know. I'd just like people to acknowledge this, and to face it bravely.