Reading, the Better Pursuit

 

I don’t know about what it is like for others but as for myself I find it very hard to post on Facebook these days. Every single day some new piece of news comes out that leaves me troubled or disturbed. My gut churning response to the great part of it is wearying. Most of what bothers me is political (for sure). While I would love to comment on these stories the only end result I see is negative. Either I will piss off some of my friends or I will gin up some of my other friends. I really don’t enjoy seeing people that I know sniping at each other. Mostly I don’t enjoy the fact that we cannot since the advent of constant intrusion of media have time to reflect, to think, to actually debate and to come to a consensus. 

 

Trust me it is not because I am afraid of conflict. I HAVE BEEN A SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE!!!! To FURTHER prove it I will say unequivocally I believe Donald Trump and the administration he empowers will be a rolling train wreck. I will also state that I believe the Russians and their stooges screwed with our election. Having said that, I am just going to let time tell us whether my beliefs at this current moment are accurate. I am not going to rant about each news tidbit that comes out. If I am wrong I know some of the folks I know will tell me about.

 

But like I said I don’t want to get into this crap, so where does that leave me? I am reading about kid’s concerts, people’s maladies, looking at music videos and reminiscing about the old days. With the things going on in the larger world these things seem kind of less important to me. Right now, I feel about as distanced as I have ever felt from any sense of real community. I love your children, I love you, I like the bands you like (mostly) but I really don’t want to talk about these things right now, not with my gut tied in knots over what is coming.

 

So, where does that leave me? I guess I will be mostly quiet. I might hit the like button from time to time but I just don’t have it in me to do much more. I am going back to correspondence I think. 

 

I will note that reading seems to help. A half hour of day of a book, particularly an older book with some philosophical content helps. It could be a novel or a memoir but there really has to be some thought about the human condition in it or I will give up on it.