In the movie Robocop, Murphy and Lewis lay mired in a muddy pit at the end, both wounded. Murphy is lying on his back, trapped under fallen steel girders. As Clarence Boddicker goes in for the kill, Murphy extrudes a secret pointy spear and slices the evil Clarence’s carotid artery. Spurt, spurt. Evil is vanquished, at least for the time being. How do robotic engineers always know to include the secret pointy thing (or raygun or whatever) into their latest mandroids?
The clean-up begins, but we hardly ever film the clean-up.
- “Murphy! I’m a mess!” Lewis says.
- “They’ll fix you. They fix everything.” Murphy — AKA Robocop — answers.
- Yes, “they” fix everything. They are great at eliminating stress, for example. We may once have been a Prozac Nation. Now we are a Prozac, Lexapro, Cymbalta, Zoloft, Celexa, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Paxil, Elavil, Sinequan, Xanax and Prozac nation. I have left out Abilify and who can count how many other fix-it drugs.
- They fix everything. Murphy’s story should give us pause, though. Was Robocop still Alex Murphy? Who are those crazy alien women with cat’s eyes and five-pound lips? And, most importantly, at what dose does Prozac fundamentally change a personality?
- Seriously, when that thrum of anxiety or depression vanishes, who are you? Who will you be? Murphy, Robocop or the plucky sidekick? Murphy’s former wife? Hopefully you’re not the guy ramming his van into the convenient, toxic waste storage container, or the random-unlucky-guy who gets shot by the ED-209.
- Yes, “they” can decrease or even wipe out your stress. They can make you feel like a new character in the film of your life. I want to share an observation, however. Physical symptoms are sometimes manifestations of intuition. Those physical symptoms may be the only connection to intuition some of us possess. Enough Xanax will shut down the fear that led to a prescription, but if life is creeping you out, you need to find out why.
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- “Your move creep,” Robocop says.
Who is the creep? Where is the creep? I recommend finding that out BEFORE you start blocking metabolic pathways. Once those pathways are blocked, you may find yourself baking orange scones for poor, lonely Clarence. He’ll take your scones, of course, along with who knows what else.
- “Your move creep,” Robocop says.
- Insight from the Biographyjar: That flutter in your stomach? Those broken nights of sleep? That clenching of your jaw? Obviously those physical symptoms are telling you that you feel stressed. But what else are they telling you? The “what else” matters and the “what else” tends to get slighted.
They do fix everything. The next thing you know, you are encased in metal and covered with all sorts of nifty cybernetic attachments. Or you are peacefully picking up a pill case every morning, which is fine if your world improves with the contents of that case.
Just be sure you hold on to your intuition long enough to identify the creeps. Who are the Clarences, Bobs or Dicks in your life? Where are they? Sometimes instead of fixing yourself, you might want to fix Dick instead. You might tell Dick where to go, refuse to listen to more of Bob’s crap, leave Detroit, or quit your soul-killing job.
Sometimes we can fix ourselves.
P.S. Don’t tell off your boss until you have the next job. Consider not telling off your boss at all since you may want that reference later.
