I enjoy the AMC show “Breaking Bad”. Who would have thought drug dealing would be so interesting on so many levels? Yes, it is interesting and fascinating (that is a given). Why am I interested and attracted to this show? One of the primary reasons it attracts me is because of the age of Walter White. He is 49, smart, straight and narrow type of kind who is driven to making a fast buck due to his terminal lung cancer (and he hasn’t smoked at all over all these years).

He has no savings to speak of. If he dies, who would take care of his family? There is no money for them to live off of after he is gone. What does he decide to do? Cook meth and sell it!

At first it was kind of comical how Jesse (one of his former students and a drug user) and Walt start cooking on a small level. They make a small amount of money in the drug business but Walt needs so much more money. You enjoy the little problems they encounter at this stage….then it just got so dark and so bad for them.

Now that they are cooking so much meth and having so many problems, you feel for them. You feel the frustration and pain of their growing business operation and you feel bad for them. Can you imagine feeling bad for drug manufacturers? These guys are creating something that kills people, ruins so many lives, and yet you are dragged into their personal lives, their fears, their problems and you feel bad for them.

You want their lives to be ok. Jesse is a total classic drug screw up and Walt is smart man that wasted his talents (and is dying of cancer). Walt’s greatest fear is leaving his family behind with nothing to show for it. You want him to make tons of money so that when he kicks the bucket, his family will be financially well off. He isn’t greedy (to a degree); he just wants a decent nest egg. Who doesn’t worry about providing for their family after they are gone?

Makes you think about your own life, doesn’t it? Makes you wonder what kind of personal hell people go through day after day, and yet they go on. What stress does the grocery store checker have? What about the guy at the gas station in the brand new car? What demons do you hide? Is the glass half empty? Half full? Are you happy go lucky type of person?

Have you become the hardened cold person, just taking each day as it comes, but not moving to change it? Are you so busy you can’t change the world?

What will ever become of Walt?