A/N: Just a little something I thought of after watching the news. Shut up it's un-beta'd…gasp!
Rating: K+
Summary: Who knew such a little word could be so misconstrued.
Disclaimer: The only thing that's mine is Mr. Carter...the saying however belongs to Mr. Haile. Don't sue me.
At my high school it was mandatory that each student take an Arts and Humanities class, 9 weeks of Art, 9 weeks of Dance, 9 weeks of Drama, and 9 weeks of music. Of all those weeks I apply very little of the information I attainted to every day life. I apply the dance portion when asked to dance at a wedding but that only ever happens once in a blue moon. What has affected me most was drama.
Mr. Carter, the spawn of whoever thought up those little jokes that come on the side of the Laffy Taffy candies, was my teacher. Everyday he told us new jokes that made not a person in the room laugh. During the first week he taught us of Ed Wood and Plan 9 From Outer Space. In the second week he talked of the different genres of entertainment. It was in this week that he started to speak of Shakespeare and his Tragedies.
"Tragedy," he said in his loud, obnoxious voice, "is when someone deserves to die."
With this sentence Mr. Carter changed my life. Every day someone would say that my life was a tragedy. Was it really though? Did I deserve everything that happened to me? Did my father deserve to die?
As I age I think of that saying daily. News casters yell from their seats of the "tragedy" that took place that day, week, month, or year. But was it really a tragedy? Did that 12-year-old boy deserve to be shot by that gang banger? No, he didn't. Not all deaths are a tragedy. Most murders are horrible, catastrophic, but almost never a tragedy.
Who knew such a little word could be so misconstrued.
END
Review...if you feel so inclined.