One bug changes the narrative
The same week as Writer's Guild began their strike, a cockroach was seen at the Met Gala
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Perspective:
A lot happened in the course of a week at the beginning of May of 2023.
A cockroach was seen on the runway of the Met Gala, an event that runs $50,000 a ticket. A prestige event that people watch year after year to see celebrities in designer gowns, costumes and jewels that run in the millions. The Roach wasn’t killed. It was chased, photographed and filmed. Memes were made. The roach became the show.
Someone on the internet said it was probably the ghost of Karl Lagerfield, who allegedly was problematic with people of color, was fatphobic and a host of other ism's.
There’s something about a bug being seen at prestige events that changes the tone.
During the 2020 presidential debates, a horsefly landed on then Vice President Mike Pence hair. His hair so white that there was no way that it could be missed.
The newscaster reporting on a serious murder investigation and then a bug flies into his mouth, throwing him into a frenzy of curse words and removing the code switching tone he employed to deliver the news. When a fly flew in the mouth of another on-air anchor, she managed to finish her report but felt it fluttering in her throat.
Just one single very obvious bug, having the timing and positioning to be seen on camera becomes not just a distraction but the defining moment. A cosmic joke making mockery of the things we take seriously. This interruption calls into question what we focus on and draws our attention away from the purpose of the thing to another plan.
The same can be said about the state of the world. During the same week as fashion roach’s carpet debut, the writer’s guild strike for better pay and wages was just beginning. In Oakland, the teachers union went on strike. Both were large and loud movements. Every time, the outcome and the landscape of what we are expecting to occur.
But as time goes on, large and loud become exhausting. The large and loud becomes the new prestige event. It detracts the focus and interrupts and introduces a new problem. With time the numbers dwindle, the fight becomes quieter or it dies because the focus and vision veered too far from the mission. Man has a way of becoming the interruption— being the bug, if you will.
The 2023 Met Gala stopped being about the fashion and became about the bug. The 2020 debates were still about the presidential election but became an indicative commentary about the candidate more than anything else.
And yet again another singular bug at an event, in a system and in a process changes the narrative of whatever it enters. Sometimes it's better this way. Sometimes it’s not. In the end, all it takes is one single cockroach to remind you, that despite all the glitz and glamour, the cockroach will get all the attention.