Share the joy

What’s the haps?

Before my trip to the hospital, I began writing a piece about how I get my world news. It was going to be something along the lines of this:

You guys are my news source.

Which is very, very true. You all give me the haps.

I discovered just HOW true during my convalescence, when using my iPoodle to check in with people seemed entirely too difficult. I was worn out from back-to-back surgery and didn’t feel like messing with all your nonsense about ice buckets and nudie-pics. After almost dying, your trendy bullshit seemed trivial, and I couldn’t muster the energy to explain how stupid you’re being for getting caught up in all that crap.

So I unplugged for about a week.

Which left me protected in a soft, ignorant blanket of Everything-Is-Okay. I snuggled into it and let the White Privilege, American Ignorance wash over me in a faux wave of World Peace. I was blissfully unaware of the haps, and it felt pretty goddamn terrific. I’m trying to say all this in such a way as it comes across that I know how fucking lucky I am to even have a choice in the matter.

I don’t get the news – the haps – via traditional methods.

I haven’t picked up a newspaper in years.

Our TV only picks up Netflix and Amazon Prime.

My radio is Pandora.

No newspaper, television, or radio news has entered my home in well over a decade. And yet, I still know what’s happening in the world – until I unplugged, that is.

Them interwebz are a wonderful thing.

I don’t scour news websites.

The only sites saved in my favorites are writing-related; inspirational self-help ditties; personal challenges; creativity boosters; and mundane sites like our local school and the library.

With friends like you, who needs news?

And I don’t mean that facetiously.

I mean that factually and with gratitude.

Because you people in the world react to events the moment they occur, and since you have such differing perspectives, I get a rounder picture of the affair than any news outlet could hope to offer.

I have to take breaks from Twitter and Facebook often, and usually for days at a time. Not always, as I have led you to believe, because of the stupid things people post, the asinine opinions being passed off as facts, the cruelty and shitty behavior… but sometimes because you do your reporting entirely too well.

You report everything and it’s overwhelming.

I can’t keep up with all the earthquakes and stories of child abuse and rape and the thing that’s happening in Missouri and the school shootings and the political machinations and all the fucking SAD that’s happening every moment of every day.

It’s too much.

It’s killing my heart.

So I disappear.

The silence is Golden, but then I eventually realize I can’t just live in a cocoon or behave like an ostrich with my head in the sand.

So I come back to you. I always come back. And I’m always glad I did. Because, even though it’s like pouring boiling oil over my soul, it beats the alternative:

Staying in the dark and choosing to remain ignorant.

Stagnation is a slow death all of its own.

These last few weeks are the longest I’ve gone clueless with regard to the world’s haps. And while they have been restful, I’m ready to come back, dive in, see what you crazy kids have been up to.

I hope you didn’t fuck things up too much while I was gone.

I also decided to be a grown-up and download a couple news apps onto my iPoodle, just in case you start posting lies.

But you guys would never pass on information that’s untrue and potentially dangerous, right?

Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

Have you ever unplugged? For how long? And why? How did it feel?
What’s your favorite news source? TELL ME IT’S NOT FOX.
Do you get the haps via newspaper, online news reporting sites, or, like many people, Facebook posts?

ViolaFury

I mostly get my news from HuffPo, The Daily Beast, Al Jazeera and the BBC, and then talk to people around me. I don't even like CNN, because they sensationalize EVERYTHING, to the point of madness. I have never really watched MSNBC, nor care to, although I did watch Chris Matthews (before he became batshit insane) and Keith Obermann. I get lots of good information from some Twitter Feeds, as they tend to lean more toward a prag-prog slant (I shouldn't even admit that, but honestly, when have you EVER heard a conservative and many liberals sound like they weren't from Neptune?)

I unplugged for a while, but I'm always back and inveighing against what I see in the world. My current fear is this mess with ISIS or ISIL. The comparisons to their behavior and how they have treated their own people are too closely paralleled with how the Nazi party behaved in its own nascent ascendancy. Pretty soon, the ISIS or ISIL assholes are going to be looking for more efficient ways to kill more people. Cue the Zyklon-B and the Ovens! It's scary and so sad. They don't even leave those men their dignity, but strip them before execution; the very worst thing that can happen to a Muslim, short of death. What bothers me, is that the U. S. seemed unconcerned until 2 American journalists were beheaded, and then President Obama's statement was so measured. Where is Winston Churchill and FDR when you need them? Biden doesn't count, because he can stand up there and yap all day, but he doesn't bear the weight of the Chief of Staff.

I don't worry about this thing in Ukraine and Russia; let me tell you why. Historically, this is how they've ALWAYS behaved. There are ethnic Russians living in Ukraine and ethnic Ukrainians living in Russia; on any given day, they lean one way or the other. It's always been a confused mess; when Putin made a comment about "Nuclear initiatives and the possibility of using them," he was talking to the equivalent of a bunch of boy scouts and it was reported by exactly one news source. Context is everything. Having been a huge fan of Russia and her music and traveling there and working with Russians, this is really nothing for the West to get in an uproar about. What the West DOESN'T understand is that we're the one thing Putin and by extension Russia fears. If we were to REALLY turn our attention to where it belongs, say first HERE AT HOME, and do something about ISIS or ISIL, then Russia will continue as she always has; being confused about their government and politics.

Here I've just rambled on for 3 paragraphs without touching on the fact that women are still in the crapper as far as wages and equality go. I guess this is just going to be the norm. I spent my working life in professions that were male-dominated and they were all pretty much a bunch of idiots when it came to women, but they were okay computer engineers and musicians. Still, I had to be better to even get a seat at the table and this has not changed one iota.

Just one last thing; I get some news from Facebook posts, but only from people I trust. I always look to see what you're up to. Glad you're on the mend! All my love to you and Jesse, Christopher and Abbey, and Dagney!