I DON'T SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS, IT'S OFFENSIVE!!

I don’t say Merry Christmas, it’s offensive.

ON CHRISTMAS

For those who don’t know me that well, I’m kidding.  F**k those tree huggin’ radicals with their sanitized, sterilized, politically correct, horse shit.  You know why kids these days get so sick?  They don’t have immune systems.   They never learned to fight off all those germs.  Saying Merry Christmas to some one is only as offensive as someone coming up to you and saying how was that Cubs game, if you’re not a Cubs fan.  “Can you believe that fat kid won American Idol?”  “Oh, I’m sorry, that’s offensive, I don’t watch American Idol.   Why would you just assume that about me?  How dare you?”  Yee-ha!  Go America!

So let’s talk about Christmas now.  It’s what you do in December.  Now it’s what you do in October.  We love sugar, don’t we?  Don’t get me started on sugar.  But Christmas, now, that’s a topic.   We should all picture Burl Ives now, wearing tinted glasses and a straw hat, possibly in the form of a snow man but perhaps in a white suit with a black bolo tie.  Definitely with a white Van Dyke mustache.  Can you smell the chestnuts roasting? Oh, I think you can.  Did it just get real creepy in here?  Back to it, Sivart.  Am I the only person who thinks it’s all pretty weird?  Christmas.  I know, it’s for the kids.  I mean, I like it, for the most part, I’ll play along, but it is kind of weird.  The whole thing.

What are we all doing?  Carried away much?  So let’s break Christmas down.  What is it, firstly?  I’ve been charged with having to explain it to my alien friend Sivart606 from Alpha Centauri B.  Good dude.   Well, it’s the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  Well, okay.  So December Twenty-Fifth is Jesus’ birthday.  No, but…Why’d they pick that day?  Excellent question, Sivart.  Nobody knows when Jesus was born.  So early on, someone, most likely a Roman, decided that usurping the pagan holiday would help ease the people into their newly reorganized religion. You know the one that saved their Roman Empire and brought the people back to them.  Kept them in line.   “These pagans have always celebrated on and around the winter solstice.  How can you expect them not to celebrate their favorite holiday?”  “You don’t, you just change it to be about something else.” Kind of like taking the focus off of one thing, the original reason, and playing up another aspect.  Wait, that’s sounds kind of familiar.  It reminds me of what Santa Claus once said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  But that’s impossible!   Ah, but of course the eye of the needle was referring to the skinny tunnels that led under the walls of ancient cities.  The camel had to be stripped of all its gear and cargo to kneel and be pulled and prodded through the tunnel.  So you can’t take it with you? asks Sivart.  No, buddy, that’s the point. 

So…When did it get so weird?  Well, I’d say it slowly evolved and became the bizarre, month long celebration it is today over the millennia.  Customs were added to older customs, many went back to pagan rituals and customs.  Gift giving and the Yule log being examples. 

Gift giving?  Why do we do that?  It’s not, for the most part, a genuine thing and so what’s the point of doing it?  When it is a genuine thing, then I’m all for it.  Give a gift to someone you love or someone you don’t even know, by all means, please do.  But the majority of gift giving at Christmas time is out of obligation.   We run around, fight each other, camp out, spend money we don’t have to give gifts to people that don’t need them or in most cases don’t even like them.  Can’t we all just call it a truce and stop?  If you see something and you think, oh, Javier would love this rug.  It would really pull his whole space together.  And you get it and you bring it to your friend Javier and you give it to him and he gives you a heartfelt thank you, even though now he feels obligated to get you something equally nice, but that’s not the point, Javier, then I’m all for it.  Give and give.  If someone is in need and you can help them out with a little gift, that’s what it’s about.  But not this. Gift giving should be a spontaneous action that comes from the heart.  Okay, says, Sivart, it is the one time of year you let the people who mean something to you in your life know how much you appreciate them.  Whatever, Sivart.   My wife is going to most likely (have a highly negative reaction towards me) when she reads this.  Because I don’t actually buy people gifts.  She does it all.  And I am very, very, very thankful to her and I want her to know how much I appreciate all she does.  It’s not easy and she busts her ass.  I should take a much more active role in stuff like that.  It’s just that I don’t get it.  It doesn’t really mean anything to me.  If I had my say, we wouldn’t do it.  Bah-humbug!   Have I lost the Christmas spirit for saying this?  I do like to see my children’s faces on Christmas morning.  But they get too many things and it doesn’t mean as much to them; certainly not as much as it did to those poor kids during the Great Depression, that’s for sure. Put that in your stove top hat and smoke it.  Okay, but there are those times when it is exciting to see those kids of mine truly excited.  But that’s it.  So, in conclusion, you should buy a couple of things for Christmas when your offspring are still young and gullible, but then that should be it.   

*I honestly do sometimes forget, and even take for granted, all the things my wife does.   She rocks!!

An excellent example of how customs have been added over the years, we’ve added a new one.  Elf on a Shelf.  It’s funny how that one starts out strong and then, by about a week or two in, that thing’s being thrown around the house and wherever it lands, is where that sneaky little bastard ran to in the night.  I have to admit, we lucked into a pretty funny Elf on the Shelf situation.   Last year someone bought us the Elf on a Shelf.  But technically it wasn’t the same Elf on the Shelf that was all the rage, it was a strange knock off elf.   And he’s a creepy looking little shit with a leer on his face, somewhere between Bob Hope and Hannibal Lecter.  He’s Chucky in an elf costume.  So after a couple of weeks my wife brings home the real Elf on a Shelf doll.  She’s all doe eyed and adorable.  So I had a ball with his creepiness once she arrived.  The original elf, the kids named Elfie.  You’d think my kids would be more creative but whatever.  And the new, real Elf on a Shelf was named Bella.  When I’d write notes to the kids as Elfie I’d write it with my right hand, note I am left-handed, and I’d purposely try to write like a kindergartener by using simple words and writing sloppily.  And when I’d write as Bella, I’d write as eloquently and properly as I could.   The couple had a tumultuous relationship.  He loved her from first sight.  She was afraid of him (at first.)   One morning the kids would find him holding her in his arms and her smile would appear very forced.  He wrote that he luved her.  She’s so pritty!  And she’d write, help me.  It put the kids in an awkward position because if you touch the elves they will lose their magic for one whole night.  She wrote that he scared her, but the kids didn’t want to touch them to pull him off of her.  So the next night she fought back and tied him up and hung him off of a cabinet in the kitchen with string.  She explained that they had had a heart to heart talk and that he wouldn’t be bothering her any more.  The next day he was found in the corner of the bathroom with his hands over his face, like he was crying.   He wrote that she broked his hart.  Then after that, my wife suggested I was taking it a bit too far and they became friends and it all went back to me just walking around the house at night trying to think of places I hadn’t hidden them before.    He really likes that spot in the window.

This all leads up to Santa Claus.  Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas, Kris Kringle.  Of all the customs, this one feels the strangest to me.   It started in Greece in the fourth century, when Saint Nicholas of Myra, a bishop, became famous for his generosity toward the poor.  He kept these poor young girls from being prostitutes by giving them dowries.  They made him a saint later and gave him January Sixth as his day.  Children were given gifts on that day until Martin Luther came along and suggested they move it to December Twenty-Fifth to bring the children’s interest back to Christ over the saints.   In Germanic culture the god Odin had a white beard and took nightly rides across the sky.  When converted to Christianity these concepts were married with Santa Claus.  The Dutch put a red cape on him.   Eventually all these versions merged into what is now Santa Claus.  And then in New York he really took on a whole new celebrity.  And poems and songs further added to the folklore over time; Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer being a more modern addition to the lore, for example.  Before I had children I was split on the whole concept of lying to my children about Santa Claus.  But since everyone does it, it’s okay.  It’s fun!  And it is.  And it will be very sad when they admit they know the truth.  That will break my heart.  But still, it’s weird.  The whole thing is a lot of work and money and time.  Ask my wife.  She’s running around like a one-eyed jack watching two flagpoles.  Maybe I should stop writing this blog and go help her out a little.

Just remember what Santa Claus always said, “He who is without sin, throw the first stone.”  Martin Luther never realized what he’d done.  So technically Santa Claus is pagan.  So that means the pagans turned it back around didn’t they?  I see what you did there, pagans! 

On Taking Back America

Yee-ha!  Remember when this was the greatest country in the world?  I’ve got to be honest, how would I know if this was the greatest country in the world?  That’s what they told us all, right?  But I never lived in another country.  I’ve seen the news and movies where it’s pretty shitty in third world countries.  Sure, those are third world countries. What about other first world countries?  Are we really better then those countries?  I’m just asking, of course.  I don’t know, remember.  We could look at statistics, but we’d better not, right.  Might not like what we see. I know we can kick anybody’s ass.  Is that the number one thing that makes a country great?  We have the best military, thus we’re the best.  Is that what you want from your country?

I’ve always found it strange that you’re supposed to hail your allegiance and your entire heart and mind to the country you were born in.   I didn’t choose to be born here.  At least I don’t think I did.  That’s for another blog entirely.  But for the sake of this entry let’s assume we don’t get to choose the country of our birth.  From a fairly young age I’ve always wondered about that.  It’s really not fair, is it?  I got lucky and was born in a very nice place in a seemingly nice country in a good era in which to live.  I saw it dwindle and tarnish slightly but I also saw it through some pretty good times.  I still love the nineties!  Good times, indeed. 

What is it about us that we have this innate desire to hold sacred the place of our birth and origins?  We take it very seriously and personally.   We love our country because we were born here.  That feels odd to me.  I don’t hate America, in fact, I feel that same pride in my country that we all have.  I just wonder where it comes from.   Is it because we feel connected to it, because we understand its culture because we are the culture?  We also feel this way about the earth itself, right?  I imagine some future where we’re intergalactic travelers who are very patriotic about the Sun.  “I come from the Sun’s solar system, and you can kiss my human ass! Yee-ha!”

I suppose it’s just human nature and we’ve been doing it since we were in tribes and we took pride in those tribes.  But we know on a higher level that we’re all human beings here together.   That we’re all related anyway.   Science and religion both agree that we all come from the same blood line.  There really was one lady with mitochondrial DNA that was the mother of modern man.  Knowing and feeling it, I guess are two things. Just because you’re related doesn’t mean you have to love them, right?  Look at your own families to confirm this.

So I’d like to present the concept of Us and Them.  It’s what keeps us apart and also on the flip side, it’s what strengthens bonds, I think.   It probably goes back to the tribal thing again or even alliances within a tribe.  There’s Us, the good ones, and Them, the other ones who have a different agenda than us, (or perhaps the same agenda but different means of achieving it.)  Think about a sports team.  It’s Us against Them and we generally don’t like Them and this dislike or strife against Them brings Us closer together.  It’s a great literary device, to have two enemies come together to fight a common foe and in the end the enemies are best friends and partners.  It brought them together.  Ronald Reagan wished aliens would come down to earth and in doing so Us humans would realize our differences and come together and bond over fighting them off. 

But there are so many forces working against this idea that we’re all in this together, that it will be very difficult to achieve it.  And it all starts with labels.  We assign labels to Us and Them and it makes it easier to bond with Us and strive against Them.  Liberals and Conservatives.  Blacks and Whites.  Muslims and Christians.  Rednecks and Gays.  Prison gangs versus other prison gangs. Can’t we all get along, prison gangs? 

And our system here in this, the world’s greatest super power is designed to keep Us separated from Them.   We know that’s what they do, right?  The powers that be keep us bickering amongst ourselves about petty bullshit while they do whatever they want.  It’s all like a pro wrestling event, our political process these days.   We can’t get anything really accomplished and we’re all so removed now from having any real say.   I heard about a political party gaining popularity in Canada called the Online Party.  Enabling direct democracy in the internet era.   They aim to eliminate partisanship by focusing on individual issues.  Their representatives are being held responsible for their actions by instant vote and count, based on an accountability oath.  People vote online and their representatives are bound by oath to uphold the wish of the majority or they will have to step down. 

Immediately I thought about the disastrous attempt of our government’s health care web site launch.  I know that’s what my conservative friends would be screaming right now; throwing their red flags in the air.  “They can’t even get that right, how would you be able to trust a site that lets you vote directly for things?” 

 *It’s important here to note that I hate politics and all the political bickering that is, in my opinion, the real thing destroying this country, so don’t assume that if I make a joke about conservatives or liberals that I’m one or the other.  On some things I’m liberal and others I’m conservative and I hate labels as this entry will hopefully explain.   It’s the whole point really.  I’m a guy speaking from the island of sanity in the middle.

But the idea that instead of relying on some bought-and-paid-for politician to act in our best interest, that in some near future we take back the democratic process and have a real say in how our country is run, really excites me.  I can also hear liberals saying, just because the majority wants something doesn’t make it the right thing.  But I’d suggest that the far wings would cancel each other out and the middle, or mentally stable people who understand there are more shades to everything than black and white, would then have the majority to run things the right way.  Whatever that means.  If you could trust someone to establish this system and make it safe from hackers and corruption, then I’d be all for it. 

You know what would hold us back and I can even make a prediction that it will; Fear.  Fear has done so much to keep us in the dark over the course of human history.  We are all so afraid of everything. Afraid of change.  We love to repeat the same safe day over and over again.   We so often find ourselves paralyzed by it.  It’s how people have held power and dominion over other people from the very beginning of civilization.  Fear is a great motivator.  Keep people fearful that if They get their way, then we’re all doomed.   I’ve mentioned that in some ways I’m more of an observer in this world, which is something I need to perhaps change, but it’s in my nature to sit back and see how things play out without passing judgment until after the fact.  People think they can predict the future and are usually so adamant about this imagined ability that they are willing to fight tooth and nail to avoid their worst fears from playing out.  I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.  That’s the very definition of conservative isn’t it?   I’ve always found it fascinating that people who claim to have the most faith in God are usually those who are also the most fearful and conservative about things.   I remember hearing from church that you’re supposed to leave it up to God and not worry about everything that you can’t control.  It’s in God’s hands, right?  But I can name several conservative people who are the first to say, “No, you can’t do that (fill in the blank idea for doing something a better way).  Then the worst thing would happen if you did that idea.” It’s usually a bad idea until you benefit from it.  Haven’t all the greatest ideas in history met with the fiercest opposition?

To keep it balanced I also know that liberal parenting is one of the downfalls of an entire generation.  The ‘everybody gets a trophy’ philosophy has led to an entitled generation of spoiled brats.   But parenting and world view can be two different things.  I believe it is important to be a conservative parent.  Overly liberal parenting can lead to some pretty shitty kids who are difficult to be around.   As a soccer coach and a member of a neighborhood with a lot of kids running around, I can attest to this.  But, growing up in a conservative town in the Bible Belt, I’ve seen overly conservative parenting backfire as well, but again, it’s the two extremes that usually fail.   Remember, there are more shades than black and white.  Open your eyes and mind to them and you’ll see things are usually more complex than simple talking points.   Is it simplicity of mind or mental laziness to let your political party tell you how to think?  It’s just easier, I suppose. 

For the first time in human history we are all able to be connected instantly with each other.  We have the ability to have a say and to be heard.  Don’t you think that as a collective mind we know right from wrong?  That there are intelligent people out there who could propose ways to make our world a better place?  I think about the road blocks to this, partisanship and the quagmire that is our current political system and I imagine a future where we all have a say in how our world is run, people from the entire globe all connected.  Then there wouldn’t be wars over oil fields, would there?  Right now the system is designed for the interests of the large corporations not for the individual human beings who it was all designed to serve.   I hope that someday it will change but it won’t come from complacency and it won’t come from fear.  One day the Earth could be the greatest planet in our sector of the galaxy.  “We have true democracy in our solar system.  Unlike you heathens from Gleepglop Alpha Centauri B. Yee-ha!”

 

Sh*t on TV

SH*T ON TV

Nancy Grace turns my stomach and causes me to writhe in disgust and anger.  To steal a line from the show News Room, she sells tragedy porn.  She enjoys the hell out it too.  She wallows in that shit.  Always on the verge of tears that seem a bit too orgasmic to me.  I think her accent is fake.  She’s actually Australian.   Like those kids on Nashville.  People ask me what I watch on TV.  I like cable drama shows, like HBO, Showtime, AMC, etc and I like to watch soccer or footy on the telly.  I may have been British in a past life.  I just feel British or European sometimes. It’s weird.  I sometimes think with a British accent.  Like my internal dialogue is read by a pompous Englishman with a dry wit.

It’s strange when I tell people I watch soccer instead of American football.  To some people it’s like I took a big crap on the American flag or something.  They seem utterly offended by it.   I played soccer in high school.  I coach it now.   I love the beautiful game.  Sorry.  I also like it because it’s NOT American football.  There’s some deep issues I’m sure hidden behind that.  Football and golf!   And now, because of where I live, I add hockey to that list of sports I resent.  Sorry, local friends, I know that’s offensive as well.  I have a rebellious, or non-conformist mind set.  I’m left handed and right eye dominant.  I poop standing up.  Just kidding.  Or do I? 

I was raised in a small town in southwest Missouri, where the high school football team was the end-all-be-all of local sports.  Maybe the basketball team could be considered a far second place.  But soccer was for alternative kids and maybe queers.  Not my terminology keep in mind.  My younger brother was a football star.   My father still watches his high light reels from twenty years ago.  I don’t believe he ever watched a high light reel of me playing soccer.  Not that one exists.  It doesn’t, but you get my point, right?   But anyway, there’s plenty down there but let’s not venture into that rabbit hole for now.

So to satisfy my ornery nature I started, in the past couple of years, to really bone up on my soccer and found the really good soccer stations to see all the big games.  I record all the magazine shows about La Liga and the Premier League.  I really enjoy it.  I used to turn completely away from sports out of resentment, but now that I’m back and on my own terms, I’m loving it.  I tended bar for years and got pretty decent at faking sports conversations.  But really I don’t care about it and always wished I could initiate a conversation about quantum mechanics and the implications of string theory or whatever.  People will assume because I’m a man that I know exactly what they are talking about.  “Oh, you see that game?  Are you kidding me with that?  What happened to our defense?”  So now I like to do that to people with soccer.  “I can’t believe both Messi and Ronaldo are out with hamstring injuries at the same time.  But I tell you what, man, that Gareth Bale really stepped it up in his place for Real Madrid.  But Barcelona’s struggling a little without Messi.  Neymar needs to start scoring goals.  Maybe the fact that Barca’ started losing without Messi after they’d had the strongest start in club history before his injury is another testament to just how important and good he really is.  How about Ozil killing it for Arsenal?”  They just look at you like, what the…?

Those who know me from my Facebook rants, know that the news media is one of the few things that really sets me off.   I don’t want to get all conspiracy theory on you here, at least not yet, but the fact that large corporations own the media and our government, makes the news just another propaganda tool; in my perhaps paranoid opinion.  So I am constantly outraged.   It has turned into a reality show in and of itself.  I wish there was a true news organization not corporately owned but owned by integrity alone, that told you about the broader subjects that affect us all.  Not these scandalous trials.  Ever since OJ, this country has been obsessed with big trials. 

I remember this feeling I had in the first grade.  It was recess time and I stood on a small hill over looking the other kids playing.  I remember thinking, what’s wrong with these people?  Are they really that stupid?  I wish I could recall what they were doing at the time or playing. I think it was their reaction to something that struck me as out of proportion to what really matters.  It’s the same feeling I get when I realize that the only reason our TVs are dominated by shit is because this shit sells.  It’s a free market.  It’s a democracy.  Now the conspiracy theorist will say that it has been designed this way.   They systematically brain washed us, dumbed us down so we all become debt slaves.  Who are they?  The top percentage who owns everything?  Maybe.  I’m mean, it’s true that’s what’s happening.  We’re all turning into debt slaves, so…  Again, there’s so much noise out there it’s really hard to discern the truth.  I’ve seen some compelling evidence but I know, that like in the seventies with back masking, and satanic symbols, that that stuff sells as well.  It’s all a question of the hall of mirrors.  The world is a reflection upon a reflection.  The Beatles figured it out with Helter Skelter, until someone took it a bit too seriously and had some people killed and started a cult.  I wonder if that’s not the cover story for the cover story though.  It’s all sleight-of-hand.  Enough so, that I’m not willing to bet on anyone right now.  Who are the good guys?

It’s hard to trust anyone who’s trying to sell you something.  And these days that’s all there is.  And now with YouTube and blogging and Twitter, that’s all everyone is doing.  Selling themselves.  Look at me.  I see the irony here.  I hope you do too.

But back to TV.  In some ways the cable television show has become the highest of the story telling art forms.   In my opinion it has surpassed the novel in terms of character development, which is what good writing centers around.   As a writer of novels I can say this with some insight.  I would absolutely LOVE to develop a television show.  I actually did it once, based on my latest novel, Devil Music.  It was developed for a short time by a production company but they never found the right show runner or something and the deal dwindled away.  Such is the life of a struggle writer.  But my point is, having written in several formats, the television drama would be for me the greatest thrill and challenge.  The places I could go!   Give me a better literary character than Walter White, I dare you. 

Another frustration with TV is the History Channel and the Science channel and all those who have gone from History and Science to reality TV bullshit!!  American Pickers is not History!   Ancient Aliens, not History!  I want my intellectual TV back.  Where have all the smart people gone?  Bring back that show Great Books.  Teach us about stuff again. 

For most of us the TV is a sort of companion.  A noise maker that keeps us feeling like we’re in touch with society.  A friend of mine says, “As long as we have a chicken in every pot and a boob tube in every living room, people will be content to let whatever happens happen.”  I’m paraphrasing him actually, but that’s the idea.  It’s like the frog in the pot of water.  It doesn’t realize it’s getting hotter until it’s too late to jump out.  And here’s the thing with the conspiracy theories; do they, the Illuminati, plant that information out there, like the symbol on the dollar bill, the Denver Airport stuff, to stir us into a revolution so that they can take away our rights?  You see the expanding track of questions along this train of thought?    Is it a big chess game? 

One huge problem I have with it, is the fact that people are people and assuming there is some secret organization running things, are they really that in unison with each other enough to pull it off?    Or are they vying for their own domination over each other and it has little to do with us?  I think there are some very wealthy people out there who have their fingers in almost every pie there is.  But I don’t know that they are as well organized, intent on evil and in single mind set of this New World Order business as the theorist would have us believe.  We like to assign more power to people and organizations than they deserve.  It makes things make more sense.  It actually gives us a sense of control, if we think we can understand exactly what’s going on.  From my experience, usually what you think is going on, may be related to the truth, but it’s never as simple as you’ve imagined it to be.  There are always many more factors involved.   

I look at Madonna and Jay-Z and think about how many albums they sell and how much money they make and wonder if it’s not all part of the show.  Do I really think Madonna’s a kaballah witch who is in touch with demonic forces that keep her in power?  No.  I have to admit that when first presented with the conspiracy stuff, and I’ll not go into that here, you can easily research all that on your own, as I’m sure many of you have, I first thought something sinister was going on.  It is, it’s called greed, but that’s just the American way.  People eat that shit up.  Remember Led Zeppelin and all that Zoso stuff?  It sold albums.  Not that Zep needed anything but their music but that’s for another blog.

Here’s where I tend to stand on most things, however; I Don’t Know.  But neither do you.   It’s why I love the question mark.  It’s my favorite symbol.   There are many more questions than answers.  Don’t be so arrogant to think you understand the universe.  We’re not even a Class One civilization yet.  We have a long way to go.  Keep questioning! 

On Bloggng; My first post

Seeing as how this is my first attempt at creating a blog, why not make it the subject?  I like starting with a question, because I have a feeling that’s going to be the recurring theme throughout.   Don’t count that as a promise.  But expect more questions than answers.  Because let’s be honest, there are, by ratio in the universe, far more questions than answers, right? 

 

Firstly, I suppose we could begin with an introduction.   I’m a middle-aged dad with three kids and a beautiful wife in the suburbs of Chicago.  I’m a soccer coach.  What do I have to complain about?  Well, this leads me to my first impression of blogging.  I always assumed the medium consisted of people complaining or ranting and raving about their opinions.  Who really cares?  But my friend, who is way more tech savvy than I am, called me one day with the specific suggestion that I start my own blog.  I blanch at the idea of self promotion.  It makes me uncomfortable.   And I’m not really technically confident I’d know how to even start.  He gets really pissed off when he remembers that I don’t have a Mac and that I still use iTunes for all my musical needs.  I secretly enjoy that my ignorance of the web irritates him, I don’t know why.  It sort of turns into a comedy bit between us, that I find hilarious.  I have similar, but much more complicated bits always running with my wife as well, with wildly varying degrees of humor.  But the point is, he gets really angry that I don’t even begin to understand what a blog is and what it is for.   This is where the joke can go too far perhaps.  Though the joke comes from truth, in that, I have a tendency to ignore the larger, louder world out there for ponderings more internally directed.  I don’t follow celebrities.  The nightly news is farce in my opinion, though I do tend to put CNN on in the mornings just to make sure the world didn’t end yet.  I think we all do that now.  “Better put on the CNN.” That should be their motto.  “Did the world end last night?  Better turn us on and find out!  CNN.”

I’d say we’re now to that point where anything’s possible.  We like bigger and better and the world just keeps producing it for us right on cue.  They have us prepped and ready for everything from zombies to aliens.  I’m just hoping the aliens aren’t zombies, then we’re all screwed for sure.   I’m not old enough to remember, but I wonder if this feeling persisted in the early sixties as well; this feeling like Times They Are a Changin’?   Mr. Bob Dylan felt it.   Shit’s about to get weird.

But contradicting myself, I do love what’s happening in the worlds of technology and science.  I marvel at how we’re living in a sci-fi movie.   I just feel like I’m watching it all happen, though, I forget that I’m here actually to interact with this stuff.  I’m here at this moment and have access to what is offered.  There’s a place for me out there in the cloud.  Why not?   And so I decided to see if I could write a blog. 

Self promotion feels so vain though, doesn’t it?  That’s one of the endless problems with having so many people crammed on this rock at the same time.  There’s a lot of noise and people scrambling to be heard over the din.  And not everyone has something good and interesting to say.  It goes against my normal personality to care to shout over them.  What makes me so vainglorious to think I have anything to say?  Forgive me, self-doubt is unattractive, I know.   But I spoke with another friend about it later that day and he too seemed as adamant as my first friend that a blog is exactly what I should be doing.   I began to think differently about blogging and the possibilities of it.  I could do it if I thought it didn’t matter how many people read it or followed it or whatever the terminology.  I would approach it as I would any other artistic endeavor.  I’d do it for myself.   So here’s the result of that internal tug of war.  My first blog.