This week’s Casey Anthony verdict and the subsequent flood of social media hate was not that surprising to me and my partner, with whom I watched, discussed and considered what I’m about to say. Her case serves as a startling reminder that Casey is the ultimate out-of-control mother who couldn’t figure out who she wanted to be or how she wanted to show up in the world with a child by her side. Regardless of what the jury’s verdict was, it’s clear in listening to those jurors who talked to the media, that they simply didn’t have enough evidence to convict. Is there a person out there that truly believes Casey Anthony did not take her child’s life? I think not, but that’s hardly the point.
Casey represents the shadow side of each of us when in that ultimate “about-to-lose-it” moment, we wish, even for the blink of an eye – that things could be different, like they were BC; before children. The trick is to have it all, right? We want the beautiful kids – the relationship – and to be able to do what we really want and BE who we want to be, free from external distractions that can prevent us from living the life we’ve always dreamed of.
But blink again and we’re back to sane. Yet this uncomfortable realization is why there are so many haters out there flooding YouTube, FB and the social grid.
Is it surprising? Not really. Casey Anthony touched the nerve of our nation and the only good that can come from this now is to acknowledge her that somehow, in her most heinous act she has done her part to keep each of us on the straight and narrow.
Sometimes we feel lost and powerless, and that’s normal, acceptable even appropriate . . . part of the human condition. But the most sublime part of any tragedy like Casey Anthony’s story is that she reminded each of us that we can be forgiving of ourselves in those infinitesimally small moments where fleeting anti-parentlike thoughts pass through our often overly tired brains. At the end of those days we are still able to come back to center, take a deep breath, kiss our little ones goodnight and simply BE alright with our lives in their full imperfect, complicated glory. Don’t we wish Casey Anthony could have been more like us?