SOA - Fact, fiction or just good old story telling? NO spoiler here!

The final episode of Sons of Anarchy has come and gone and many of us who enjoy good story telling are feeling a tad bereft.  There is NO spoiler alert here as I will not do that to those who haven't seen the show. I made that mistake once in season three and had a "friend" so pissed at me she has barely said a word to me since!

As a friend of mine, Dave Clayton, stated so eloquently in a thread on my personal Facebook page, Kurt Sutter and his writing crew did an amazing job of telling a story where characters were well thought out, rounded out and their ends were fitting.

Shakespeare, Machiavelli - there was a lot of both in this series and Kurt Sutter is, in my humble opinion, a brilliant storyteller, and deserves to mentioned next to these two fabulous writers of days gone by.

While the show was a fiction, it touched on so many of life's issues, greed, jealousy, fear, love, loyalty, power, ego, acceptance.  This writer evoked emotions from you and that is what a great writer does - evoke emotion. The actors themselves did a damned good job of portraying the story.

For those who say the show perpetuated stereo types of women and bikers that put them in a bad light, I suggest that you didn't "really watch" the story line. That your focus became too - for the lack of a better word - narrow.

Before you go getting pissed at me, I ask you to really think about it.

You saw good cops, bad cops, bad cops who got a conscience, good cops who lost their conscience.

There were good moms and bad moms, moms who were torn between the love for their man and their children, and moms who would do anything to protect their children.

You saw hookers, call girls, porn stars, drug addicts, doctors, crown prosecutors, cops - all female.

There were men in suits, politicians, high powered business people that were as bad if not worse than the street thugs that did their dirty work, men who had respect in their community that did not deserve that respect because it was a respect created by a veil of smoke, generated by fear and you saw good people in suits who truly wanted to do good.

You saw a trans gendered female find love and acceptance, you saw racial tensions and racial acceptance.

You saw people who rode bikes that did horrible, horrible things and yet those same people were capable of deep love, honour and loyalty.

If that doesn't mirror real life then what does?

If that isn't the making of a good story, then I guess Shakespeare and Machiavelli should not be honoured as great writers, great storytellers.

Watch the news and every day you will hear of someone murdering or beating someone, and others performing amazing acts of kindness.

You'll watch good cops who do heroic things and bad cops who do brutal things.

Read books like the "Conspiracy of the Brothers" or "Hells Angels at War".

My husband grew up in Chomedey-Laval where the war between the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels was as bloody as any war could get. He remembers all too well what went on in that city.

Think back to the massacre in Ontario not that many years ago.

There are bikers - one percenters and NON one percenters that DO VIOLENT SHIT.

But there are also bikers who do great acts of compassion and generosity, kindness and love.

When are people ever going to learn that there is a little bit of good in the worst of us and a little bit of bad in the best of us?

Can people not see through the superficial Hollywood shit to the underlying story?

The one thing that people of all races, all creeds and all walks of life NEED to understand is that we are ALL HUMAN FIRST.

No matter what separates us, we are all humans and we all have the EXACT SAME basic needs:

Food
Shelter
Clothing
Acceptance
Understanding
Love

We all have the same basic enemies:
Greed
Fear
Misunderstanding
Hatred
Poverty
Intolerance
Assumption
Ego

While some of the Hollywood theatrics of the show got to me at times, while some of the window dressing was too over the top, the story that Kurt Sutter and his crew and cast told was the age old story of good versus evil told in a genre that bikers could relate to.

It is no different from the stories depicted in the Harry Potter books/movies, The Red Tent, Blood Diamond or thousands of other stories that storytellers have told since the beginning of mankind.

It is the age old story of the good and evil that lives inside all of us.
It is a battle we fight daily as we make the choices we do as we walk along this path called life.

Some took the show as gospel that this is the way ALL clubs conduct themselves and they wanted their inner badass to have some air so they started conducting themselves like an actor in a story - pretending to be something they wanted to be, but don't have what it takes to be.

Others refused to engage because they felt it depicted stereotypes or because, in their opinion all cops and politicians take this story as the gospel truth about bikers.

And in the middle are the rest of us who just saw a damned good story about life and the tough decisions that we all face at times, the war that goes on inside of all of us.

You ride this world alone no matter who is beside you, your choices and decisions are what form YOUR life.  No one MAKES you do anything but you.

You have to live with the consequences of YOUR CHOICES.

"This Life"
(written by: Curtis Stigers, Kurt Sutter, Bob Thiele, David Kushner)

Ridin' through this world
All alone
God takes your soul
You're on your own

The crow flies straight
A perfect line
On the devil's path
Until you die

This life is short
Baby that's a fact
Better live it right
You ain't comin' back

Gotta raise some hell
Before they take you down
Gotta live this life

Gotta look this world
In the eye
Gotta live this life
Till you die

You better have soul
Nothin' less
Cause when it's business time
It's life or death

The king is dead
But life goes on
Don't lose your head
When a deal goes down

Better keep your eye
On the road ahead
Gotta live this life

Gotta look this world
In the eye
Gotta live this life
Till you die

At the end of the day I gotta say #WTF Sutter!
My hats off to you sir, you are one hell of a writer, a story teller...

And that's how I saw it - what say you?

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider