"Just One Bad Day"
How much suffering can one go through before they break?
No matter how much we try to avoid tragedy, it will forever be looming in the distance. Whether it be losing a lover carrying your child or being the victim of a heinous crime, sometimes the universe shows no mercy.
A cruel formality of your daily existence is that anything can happen, especially in a city known for its corruption. Avoiding crime is a part of your daily schedule, and with the court system's lackadaisical outlook on justice, anyone's time can be next.
A struggling comedian with a family on the way was a perfect pawn. A man already on the edge of sanity as he's trying to provide a home for his newborn baby.
Chasing a dream with no promise of financial gain is already hard enough, and now there's a woman who loves you more than they love themselves making the pressure tenfold. With your confidence waning from lackluster performances, a recipe for disaster was in the making.
Change in Perspective
Imagine something so tragic happening that your view on life drastically changes forever.
The smell of flowers no longer brings you joy.
Seasons changing means nothing as time remains still.
Darkness becomes your best friend as you shun the light.
Happiness becomes nails on a chalkboard as your world spins deeper into chaos.
Life is already hard enough and sometimes it does feel as if a higher power is specifically targeting you.
Your eyes are consumed by the shadows as nothing positive can be seen. The lovely laughs you once shared become cries of sorrow. The life you once knew falls into despair as regret consumes the mind. Knowing that you played a part in the outcome that reshaped your life, the question now is how can you look yourself in the mirror.
The human body is capable of many extraordinary things; however, there are some mental scars we carry forever. A permanent stain in your memory bank that no amount of love and forgiveness can remove. With your standpoint changed for the worse, you begin to treat others how you feel.
Wild Actions
Even though one may move with misery, it does not automatically give them the right to treat others harshly. You lack the desire to be emotionally connected to anyone besides your spiraling thoughts.
Affection is met with violence as love becomes a foreign word. Friendship isn't worth it as you could never reciprocate the emotions needed to actually build trust. Your own actions are wild and can't even be dictated by your own reasoning.
The intrusive thoughts of a madman can be extremely dangerous. With stability ripped from your very feet, you bathe everything in disorder. Your words fly out without any rhyme or reason while the mind twists and bends reality. The rules of society are but a distant memory, and crime becomes a part of your ethos.
You laugh at the justice system as they try to foil your efforts but your mind is so warped no one can predict your movements. Even the world's greatest detective struggles to give an accurate prediction of your unpredictable motions. Your plans seemingly have no thought put in however they always seem to accomplish the goal of causing disarray amongst the people.
A Shift in Personality
One Bad Day can have huge consequences on your future. We've all heard of individuals never being the same after a traumatic event however we never think that person could be you. The person you were yesterday will never return as the shift in your personality is here to stay. This new Joker persona is how the world sees you.
Jokes cover the pain of losing everything as you find other people's despair funny. In the past when you tried to hop on stage to make a career, you bombed. Now the world is your audience, and their terror is synonymous with your laughter.
You went from a casual person never looking for a confrontation to charging headfirst into any situation that causes agony to others. A family man who wished nothing but to succeed in comedy, was now a shattered individual who will never be able to put the pieces back together. You found life's new meaning by not attempting to rise above the burden of loss.
Losing Hope
You scoff at the mere idea of hope, and the antithesis to your being is someone who suffered a day similar to yours and rises above. Keeping their morals in line while you throw yours to the wayside. Faith in the human race is non-existent as you go out of your way to prove that people can change for the worse and don't deserve second chances.
This One Bad Day changed everything, and you are convinced if anyone who thinks they can push past such an event is not only wrong but doesn't understand humanity's faults.
There are two sides to every coin, and the Joker and Batman are no different. One chose to take his pain and was determined to make sure no child would ever feel the suffering of seeing their parents gunned down right before their very eyes, While the other made sure everyone knew what torture meant with a smile on everyone's face.
Regardless, this day changed both, as they were in similar states after each event, wondering how the world could have allowed such a terrible event to happen to them.
One bad day can be a lifetime, and we can see the consequences of abandoning morality for the sake of those suffering. The battle to keep your sanity was lost in an instant and you forever spend your time proving that people cannot conquer their inner demons.
Whether it be a ton of therapy, someone showing you admiration in your darkest times, or being locked up with Gotham's worst, you will always deny a chance at redemption. No matter how many opportunities you get to change your destiny, you laugh in the face of change.
-Thank you so much for reading