I have many guilty pleasures, things that I enjoy but am hesitant to admit to others for various reasons. I don’t know if the television series Breaking Bad , which starts it’s third season tonight on AMC, qualifies if only for the fact that the word pleasure doesn’t seem to fit the viewing experience.
Unsettling. Disturbing. These words seemed like a better fit. And fascinating, always fascinating, despite the uneasy hellscape in which you find yourself immersed.
For those unfamiliar, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher in New Mexico who discovers that he has malignant cancer and in order to provide for his family, which includes a baby and a teenage son with cerebral palsy, turns his chemistry knowledge towards the production of crystal meth. It’s basically the story of a good person who makes the decision to compromise his beliefs for what he views as good reason and must deal with the transformations and unintended consequences of that decision.
And there are transformations. And consequences.
I think that’s the appeal of the show. It’s about a seemingly normal person with good intentions that we can all identify with in some way. He could easily be someone we know, someone we nod to on the street or chat with at the supermarket. But his initial bad decision has placed him a labyrinth where every subsequent decision sends him in veering directions that take him further and further from his intended destination. It’s something that many people who’ve made drastically wrong choices in their lives often encounter although most will never encounter the often horrifying circumstances that accompany Walt’s oddyssey. When you see where Walt finds himself, you look at your own life and breath a sigh of relief.
And maybe that’s the attraction.
Redtree Times 
Oh, dear. All was well until I got to the last paragraph and read this:
…his initial bad decision has placed him (in) a labyrinth where every subsequent decision sends him in veering directions that take him further and further from his intended destination.
I couldn’t have written a better description of where I fear we are with health care reform if I’d tried. Our legislators – Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative – are seemingly normal people with good intentions. Whether the decisions they’re making are good or bad probably won’t be apparent until, as for Walt, the law of unintended consequences shows up on the doorstep, ready to move in and stay a while.
Horrifying circumstances? All a matter of degree, I suppose. But I look at my 92 year old mother and these health care proposals, and I’m not ready to breathe a sigh of relief. Not by a long shot.
I thought of the same thing when I wrote this. The fact remains that we, as a nation, have been trapped in this healthcare labyrinth for some time now and have made many bad decisions along the way to get to this point. Unfortunately, you can’t escape a labyrinth without first taking a step forward. Is it the right direction? I don’t know but I do know that I would rather move forward than stay stagnant because of some fear of what may or may not be around the next corner in the maze. I would rather follow hope than live in fear.