A fairy-tale about dealing with a BPD? Maybe!

[Guest guest]

Ever since it premiered back in 1986 I really, really liked the movie

" Aliens " (the second " Alien " movie) but never understood why I did

until fairly recently.

Now that I have 20 years' more experience and personal insight, I

believe its because that movie is such a great allegory about dealing

successfully with nada!

Its very fairy-tale like in its simplicity, but, hey, it works for me:

the huge Alien Queen is nada, and Ripley is my empowered adult self,

protecting my inner Child (Newt) from the monster. I always got such

a thrill when Ripley stepped forward in that robotic loader

contraption and said in such a powerful voice, " Get away from her you

BITCH! " And then she did battle with the monster and won!

(This is not to say, of course, that I want to or am planning to kill

my nada. The monster's death is more like the death of nada's power

over me, or the death of her ability to inflict emotional damage, or

the death of her being able to claim the beloved and honored title

" Mother " .)

What drew me to the story from the first time I saw it was Ripley's

heroism. Although Ripley was truly terrified of the Aliens, had

nightmares about her first encounter, etc., but even so, even knowing

it was pretty much a suicide mission, she went and faced them a second

time, took the lead when she needed to, never gave up and put herself

in danger over and over to protect a little helpless child that needed

her. I wanted to be that strong and capable and self-empowered!

I watched the film again a couple of nights ago, and it just made me

feel good. Very cheerful. (I don't watch the later ones, Alien 3 or

Alien 4, though; I found those depressing!)

-Annie