Breaking Bad?

I know it is rather humbling to admit that after watching a few other T.V. series I’m now hooked or fascinated with Walter White. I too have a chemistry background and do have some recollection in the 70’s of one of my coolest professors getting into some trouble for his excellent lab work. What strikes me about this series is how extreme circumstances at times push us to break the rules out of desperation. It is so obvious that our culture has a ‘thing’ for the action hero type that is on both sides of the law.

I watched a movie recently that focused on the evils of corporate America and how this Greenpeace type of group became eco-terrorists. I know that ultimately the goal wasn’t to harm anyone but to make an impression on the CEOs of the world that have little touch with the reality of the rest of us. I was rather ticked off on Saturday when we went for a day trip and a hike that the Federal Government shutdown had impacted bathrooms, which were really holes in the ground and had the doors locked with an obnoxious sign on the outside.

I don’t want to come across as someone who is totally pragmatic or utilitarian but at times you have to out ‘fox’ the bad guy in order to stay ahead. I know that the mystique of Mr. or should I say Dr. White is that he is a genius type of guy who has always been used by someone else and never profited for his brain power. I often think of one of Jesus’ parable that could have been the breaking bad story of his day. One of the accountants is slacking on his job and the CEO finds out and threatens to fire him if he doesn’t step up and do something. So the accountant goes radical and starts selling accounts to raise money. Ultimately the accountant makes his boss lots of money and fixes the hole he had gotten himself into and kept his job. The point is sometimes we have to pretend to be the bad guy type and see how to do something with shrewdness.

So is it possible to be like a Dr. White and not have to break the law or become the kingpin in some drug cartel? I think that too often because we are lazy and really believe money falls out of the sky or Uncle Bob is going to die and leave us his fortune that we are totally reactive in our mindset. I think the amazing thing is that someone as boring as a chemistry teacher can figure out life, albeit on the bad side but his real passion was helping his family in the face of his cancer scare.