Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Pull up a chair folks... I may ramble a bit, but I do have a point.

For about a week now an article I happened across has been running through my mind and I can't seem to let it go. The headline was timely and piqued my interest enough that I went to the site, "Why Joe (and Kanye and Serena) Won't Apologize" by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield. The title of course refers to the recent public outbursts we have witnessed from public figures during public/televised moments.

The Rabbi's article was born of another article written solely about Joe Wilson's outburst during the President's speech earlier this month: "Oh, Mr, Wilson..." in which she refers to "a political era of uninhibited belligerence." (btw, spot on Ms. Parker!)

Hirschfield makes many excellent points and describes our current social climate perfectly: It's all about me! Look at me! Look what I did! Look who I was! I'm mad! I'm happy! I hate this! I love that! I took a breath! I love cereal! I love haggis! I dressed myself! I exhaled! I go potty!

He also addresses our loss of civility toward each other. If you haven't noticed a lack of awareness for our fellow man, just take a look at how people act in stores, movie theatres, and how they park their cars. Our loss of civility is apparent in our daily interactions with others face to face, and how we expect it to be any better online where you can be faceless and nameless.

In the political venue, our town halls are rude, offensive and unintelligent. Our public displays almost always involve some sort of racism or kooky End Timer's declaration, and without fail defame or disenfranchise a minority.

In the social venue, we have retreated to the safety of our computer screens and cell phones where we can go about declaring our loves and hates for all the world to see, or not, depending on your friends or followers.

After playing around on Facebook for a few months and having caught up with a few people from high school, I grew tired of #1 feeling involved with people I really don't even know anymore or care to #2 taking a peek into the current views and thoughts from people of which I had fond memories started to really disappoint and depress me. "You mean everyone isn't a Democrat? Not everybody my age is proud of our new President?" I am naive in a lot of respects. So one afternoon it hit me----Hey! I don't have to do this! I don't HAVE to have a Facebook account and see people's stupidity. It was an epiphany that set me free like crazy and I felt a huge weight of involvement lift from my shoulders. I know it sounds stupid, but I felt chained. Granted, I had chained myself, but chained nonetheless. I understand that some folks really enjoy that interaction and involvement, but it's not for me. Much of my day is spent listening to people tell me things I don't want to know, so why subject myself to it on my off time?

(I told you I might ramble. Rethinking that chair now aren't you?)

Most of you know, I started this blog to give me an outlet for my frustrations during the dark dark time now known as the Bush Administration. It served me well. I had a creative outlet to express my feelings of being forced to watch a buffoon take over our country and, what seems like permanently change/deepen the wedge between parties and citizens.
Most of you also know that I tend to lean toward the Chicken-Little-Negative-Nellie-The-Glass-Is-Half-Empty-OMG-What-If-"That"-Happens? kind of thinking. I know, it's a shock! Mary Sunshine I am not! That being said, I am finding that I censor myself so as not to always post negative rants. I don't want to put that out there to become my destiny or prophecy. Some days I want to just rant like a loon about something or someone, but I've come to the realization that yelling about it on here doesn't help me anymore. In fact I think it feeds me. Bad, Seymour.
In short, I don't want to be a part of the uncivil or the uninhibited belligerents anymore. I'm sick of hearing me talk.
There are many times and days when I look at Jen and say, "I love my blog!" I know I am it's biggest fan. Isn't that just the definition of a self-centered individual?!

So after close to four years, 14K hits, and 918 posts, I'm done. At least for now.

Thank you for reading, thank you for commenting, thank you for still being my friends after knowing how My Brain functions. It was fun!

What's that? Twitter, you say? Oh I'm not giving up Twitter! Slices of daily life served with a side of brevity? Yes, please!

6 comments:

Bren B said...

That was the worst Wowee Wednesday EVER!!!! LOL!! Sniff, sniff. Your blog will be missed. Happy you're still tweeting. :)

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Anonymous said...

It was very interesting for me to read this article. Thank you for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more on that blog soon.

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