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I have two items for today's write-up on Stephen King's IT:
1. On page 1118, Bill regrets that he told his wife, Audra, that he was going to Derry, Maine, for Audra followed him, and IT put her in a catatonic sort of state. Bill expresses this regret to Mike, who is recovering on his hospital bed, and Mike narrates, "Sometimes it's better to say nothing---so that's what I did."
I find that to be true, too. Sometimes, it's best just to say nothing. A slogan I have heard is, "Never pass up an opportunity to keep your mouth shut." Of course, I can't take this to an extreme. I need to talk in order to socialize, to network, etc. There are articles on how to get ahead in business, and they recommend that one speak at least three times in a meeting---and they suggest that introverts (who may have problems speaking extemporaneously) do research and come to a meeting prepared to do so. Good advice. But I find that my mouth can exasperate problems. Maybe there are times to communicate my problems about something, but there are also times for me to shut up for the sake of peace. In Mike's case, silence probably was the best option. He didn't want to beat up Bill with his words, for Bill was beating up enough on himself. But he also didn't want to say something to make Bill feel that it wasn't his fault, for perhaps Bill wouldn't be convinced. The best Mike could do was to offer to Bill his own home as a place where Audra could recover.
Do I keep silent out of laziness? In part. Part of it is also not knowing what to say. But I've also done so because I don't want to create greater hastles.
2. On page 402, Beverly Marsh's mother is talking about a working woman named Cheryl Tarrent who broke her leg in an automobile accident, which was caused by Cheryl's husband drinking. Cheryl would probably lose her job, and her family would have to go on county welfare.
The narrator then says: "It was the worst thing Elfrida Marsh could think of. Losing a child or finding out you had cancer didn't hold a candle to it. You could be poor; you could spend your life doing what she called 'scratchin.' But at the bottom of everything, below even the gutter, was a time when you might have to go on the county and drink the worksweat from the brows of others as a gift."
I know people who think like Elfrida Marsh on this. They feel that they pay too much taxes, and that people on welfare are mooching off of them, getting for free things for which they have to work. Some have pointed out to me that the people who feel this way shouldn't complain, for the middle class hardly pays any federal income taxes. And yet, there are middle class people who still complain about dividend taxes and other taxes that they have to pay, and they talk like they're struggling to get by. And they feel that their very own worksweat should not go to moochers who supposedly choose not to work.
And there are people who do not hesitate to drink the worksweat of others. Some cheat or manipulate the system. This is wrong. But I do not believe that all poor people are poor because they want to be, for there are many who work, sometimes even multiple jobs, and they're still poor.
If I admire any attitude nowadays, it's not so much the attitude that complains that people are mooching off of the sweat of hardworking people. Rather, it's an attitude that I've encountered from a couple of people I know. One used to be a poor student in Canada, and he benefited from Canada's national health care system. Now, he makes a six-figure salary, and he says that he is willing to pay higher taxes so that others can have a similar deal to what he had when he was poor. Another friend of mine said that he's not bitter about paying taxes to support certain government programs, for he's benefited from government programs in the past. The attitude of these people is not "What's in it for me?" They acknowledge that people can find themselves in bad circumstances, and so they are willing to pay taxes so that the government can help.
I also think of a conservative Canadian on Michael Moore's Sicko. When Michael Moore asked him why the government should pay for his operation, he responded that he'd do the same for somebody else who was sick. Middle class right-wingers (and people of other political ideologies) can complain about paying for the health care of the poor, but our health care system can break the backs of the middle class, too. In my opinion, it's good when society can have an attitude of "we", not just "me". Hopefully, in this kind of system, not only would the poor benefit, but the middle class wouldn't feel as vulnerable as it does.
