Poor Little Rabbit: The Runaway Bride
The airwaves crackle with speculation about the Georgia woman
who just couldn't face her long-planned wedding. Law enforcement
is deciding if they should prosecute or try to recoup the almost
100,000 dollars spent when it was believed that she had been
abducted.
What's the problem? Her fiance states that he still loves her
and wants to marry her. The vendors for the 600-guest wedding
will get paid anyway, without any of the work. The families'
pride will eventually be restored and their embarrassment erased.
What does the hoopla say about the state of our society? In
other eras, without the mass communication apparatus available
today, people could just disappear, and often did. When someone
drops out now, we assume foul play because we are so inured to
its occurrence. Is it her fault that a manhunt was launched? Her
initial claim that she had been abducted was patently false; her
real act of running away was an emotional jolt to her family but
surely not against the law, nor was it for the California
housewife who chucked everything and went to Las Vegas.
Or is there an obscure statute somewhere that prohibits us from
shipping out with no notice and no apology? If we are not
avoiding debts or crimes, why can't we go wherever we want?
Our society is so organized and our identities so rigidly bound
with numbers and personal history that we can no longer escape
ourselves. Wherever we go, we can be traced: social security
numbers, names, dates of birth, bank account numbers,
fingerprint archives, Internet droppings, medical and dental
records. Where does it stop?
Communication and intelligence-sharing is needed for security
purposes but just how deep into our private lives should Big
Brother intrude? Personal freedom means the freedom to be
ourselves, to go wherever, and do whatever, we want as long as
it doesn't infringe on the rights of others. Do others have, in
fact, the right to know who and where we are?
Look at the almost-bride's eyes in every photograph. She looks
like a terrified rabbit seeking a way to bolt - and finally she
did. Poor little rabbit, you didn't get very far, did you?
The occasional urge to flee, to run off to join the circus, to
tie up our goods in a scarf on a stick and set off to see the
world, tempts all of us at times.
Forget it. You'll be found, brought back, publicly humiliated,
and presented with a bill for the money it cost to search for
you.
No wonder we read books, watch movies, and play games rooted in
fantasy. Was it a coincidence that both the George bride and the
California housewife both headed for Las Vegas, the ultimate
fantasy? We are no longer allowed a life of adventure or
exploration, spending our days, as Thoreau envisioned, leading
lives of "quiet desperation."