Could Molly’s Life Mirror Courtney’s?

I began writing about Molly a little while ago, looking into and thinking on the life of a young woman, an angry, friendless, homeless woman, barely into adulthood, but with much life experience of the worst possible kind.

I was making it up as I went, based on vaguely heard new reports, some personal life experiences, and my own thoughts about these matters. Molly was slowly becoming a new person to me, as I wrote my short blog posts for this blog, one I’ve set up for myself as a writer.

I drew the picture of Molly’s face first, and that image spoke deeply to a part of my heart, myself, and I felt connected to her, and her horrid life. And then, I heard of the awful murder of a young woman, Courtney Herron, and I shuddered. This young woman’s life could easily have been the life that my fictional character has been living.

Will I eventually write of a similar ending for Molly, could I do that to this character I have come to care about, even to love, or at least feel responsible for? What kind of life will I eventually give young Molly? Can I write her a happy ending? And even if I could do that, will I? I would certainly like to, but would that be honest?

I’ve been talking about Molly finding her lost smile, getting a better life, that allows her the permission and the ability to smile a real, happy smile, rather than the sneer that almost permanently mars her face.

Thinking about the death of Courtney Herron in Melbourne, beaten to death in a park is a reminder that reality is far from the fiction that is Molly’s life, even if there are similarities. So I’m pondering, what to do. Do I continue posting occasional posts about aspects of Molly’s life, or do I let it go, and turn my mind to other of my writing projects …

My own life continues on, in vastly different than Molly or Courtney face or faced. But I am a woman, I have lived at least some aspects of the lives of these two women, but not any of the more difficult aspects. I have a smile, a real and happy smile, and I have many things in my life to smile about.

I have a home, a partner, a loving and caring family, and many lovely friends who care about me too. I am not a Molly, I am not a Courtney. But I am a writer, and a person who cares about others, and if I can, I want to use my writing skills, to examine further, the lives of troubled people, in particular troubled women.

Something I’ve just written on Facebook seems relevant, at least in part, to these words. It relates to happiness, and is certainly something I have come to believe to be true. Our happiness is ours to look to, no-one else can make us happy. This is my Facebook comment in response to something I found and posted on my own Facebook page:

“All of us must bear responsibility for our own happiness, and only our own. Others must do the same, and realise their happiness cannot be dependant on others, it is up to all of us to look after our own happiness.”

The things people do, that isn’t what makes us unhappy, not directly. It is our response to the actions of others that makes us unhappy. Of course there are some actions of others that would be difficult to be happy about, that is certainly true. Being beaten by someone, that would be impossible to react happily too, unless you have an extremely twisted mind.

So, not all men are brutal attackers, not all young woman will face vicious attacks. These are good things, for sure,  but the truth is, some men, and at times but far less often some women too, attack others brutally. And both women and men may experience terrible and brutal violence from others. Life is not always ‘nice’ or ‘pleasant’. Life can be a terrible battle ground.

Surely it is up to us all, to do our best to ensure those around us are safe, and live peaceful lives, unharmed my the kinds of brutal actions I’ve mentioned in this post. We all have a desire, I’m sure, for a better life than that, for ourselves, and for those we love.  May we take actions to ensure such things go that way, and we all have easy lives, not difficult ones.