I saw a Clint Eastwood movie last night and came away completely satisfied. What is it about these movies?  Clint is the equalizer, like Bruce Willis and Tony Soprano. They are the warriors, the ones who put things right by finding quick, immediate solutions to injustice. There is no guilt, or long involvement with the grinding gears of a glacial legal system. They take matters into their own hands and do what needs to be done.

As a therapist I admit to having revenge fantasies when I hear stories about child beatings, rape and other unimaginable cruelties. I want to call The Godfather and say, go take care of this. I don’t ever want this to happen again to anyone. Stop it now and forever, wipe it off the face of the earth. My spirit is looking for a cosmic hit man.

This part of me alarms my husband, who is one of the kindest men on earth. When Jodie Foster was sitting in the subway in, The Brave One, and saw three men approaching with knives to terrorize, rape and cut, she surprised them by pulling a gun and blowing them away. I squeezed my husbands hand during that intense scene and whispered, yes, in his ear, justice, immediate and final. He smiled a nervous smile. I loved seeing her move into her warrior self instead of becoming the victim that needs years of rehabilitation to recover a fragment of the woman she used to be. I’ve gone back with my clients to moments of original trauma. I sat with their courage when they looked at raw, open pain and wept right along with them. I now hold memories I don’t want to hold, and a knowledge of human suffering and injustice I can never release.

I understand there is no one to blame. I only wish it was that easy, but it never is, because the bad guy is usually the bad guy because of what was done to him. He is dealing with the thorn in his own heart. I look beyond him, to his tormentor, but the piercing is endless. Real life is so complicated, while movies are so wonderfully black and white.

Obama is a wonderful role model, much like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. They are the true leaders. They are warriors of the heart. The wise part of me knows this, but once in awhile, after a day of working in the trenches of life, I just want to go to the movies and watch the bad guys get blown off the planet.