Swimming in it

Slightly disturbed that I immediately identified with the one who wielded all of the power in the play.  My empathy has swung more in the other direction now.  First impressions aren't always correct, we bring so much of our societal views into it, our own baggage.  Robin told a related joke, something to the effect of an older fish passing by two younger fish and saying, "How's the water today, boys?" and the younger fish answering, "Fine," but later after he swims off, one says to the other, "What's water?"  The idea I take from it is that we are so immersed in the way things are, we aren't aware of it.  That "John" is so wrapped up in his privilege he can't see it.  That if he were to experience for one moment what everyone else (not of that same privilege) experiences on a daily basis, it would be newsworthy.  He doesn't "get" the struggle that "Caroline" faces daily, against which, if she stops fighting, she sinks.  And now she's fighting not for herself, but to reform the system; she's starting with him.  (In the first act, she says again and again, "I did what I was told." But it didn't make any difference.  She is trying to do what she's been told, but gets patronized.  When she tries to explain herself, she gets written off as "angry."  He labels her and stops listening.  The system wasn't set up for her.)

The ending and the reason I was told it was written, make it ambiguous, still.  But I have to make a choice none-the-less.  The person I was talking to said that the first time he saw the play, he took a woman and she hated it.  They later saw a different performance and she liked it.  He said he didn't think it was Mamet's intention to necessarily make "Caroline" the villain, but that was the director of the first performance they saw's choice.  The second director made a different choice.  And you can do that, because there is some ambiguity.  You think it's one way, and then, no, it's going in the other direction.

So, if there were a song...originally I was thinking Pat Benatar, either "Heatbreaker" or "Treat Me Right."  Then I thought, Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman," or then Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." Probably will go with Reddy for "You can bend but never break me, 'cos it only serves to make me, more determined to achieve my final goal.  And I come back even stronger, not a novice any longer, 'cos you've deepened the conviction in my soul."  The sparring partners we have in life make us grow, make us stronger...hopefully, both of us are transformed in the process.  (The weak dig into their position deeper, the strong transform.)  She came in the room to get help with a class, and ended up finding a purpose (even if she eventually pushes it too far.)