I'm angry.
It's making me feel old.
I can't truly escape this crotchetiness.
I'm frustrated with the way the country is being run and not run. I'm frustrated with the politics being more important than the issues and progress. I'm frustrated that our congressional leaders have a 9% approval rating. I'm even more frustrated that they've earned it.
But I can't get away. I can't turn it off.
It used to be I could turn on sports and at least get away. But I'm angry at sports. Not only are our heroes letting us down again, they are also being over-covered thanks to, apparently nothing else better for the media to do.
I could turn on SportsCenter. Homer Bailey threw the first no-hitter of the season this week. But first, I have to wait through the Hernandez murder investigation. I have to sit through all the coverage of the signing of a third string quarterback who has as sub-.500 completion percentage. I have to sit through the latest steroid scandal. I have to sit through speculation of where Dwight Howard may sign...WEEKS FROM NOW WHEN FREE AGENTS CAN ACTUALLY SIGN.
Steroid scandal notwithstanding, there is some great stuff going on in baseball. Max Scherzer has 13 wins and no losses. The last person to go 13-0 before the fourth of July was Roger Clemens in 1984. This rookie, Puig, is hitting lights out (until he got injured today). The Pirates have the best record in the MLB! I've written blog posts about how historically bad that franchise has been for the last 20 years!
There are great things happening! The problem is that we have to wade through all the crap that is thrown at us just to find them.
Maybe the media should start paying attention to the good in the world instead of barraging us with the bad. Take a minute and open a tab. Go to CNN.com. On the main page, how many headlines are anything close to positive? I just checked it out. When I visited the news site, there were 61 headlines/videos. 15 were not negative. That doesn't mean positive. Of those, 4 were on food, 2 were on how to hang the flag, and 3 were on insipid celebrities. I read the news less and less. I don't watch the news anymore. While I was on the CNN website, I couldn't help myself and had to check a headline on Westboro Baptist.
Friends on Facebook from both Right and Left post "news" stories. We have this need to seek out what we hate. I had to check the latest on Westboro. We seek out what and who don't agree with us. Something I tell my students is that the news reports the negative because the positive isn't news. A plane landing isn't new because thousands do it every day. The unusual is the one that doesn't. However, are we killing ourselves? Anger is good in moderation. Nearly anything is good in moderation, but not being able to escape that which makes us angry can't be good for us.
I raged tonight. I got angry at the news, at SportsCenter, at Facebook, at my insipid iPhone games, at my equally insipid Facebook games. I tried to read a book and couldn't focus. I tried to just sit out on the deck and enjoy the scenery from the house that I am sitting. Finally, I turned to YouTube. I rediscovered Victor Borge. I laughed. I watched his performances on Dean Martin and the Muppet Show. I watched the 5 most surprising Britain's Got Talent shows (Susan Boyle was #3). I felt better. But, somehow, eventually, things like Chong Smokes Fox News and Obama Anti-Christ crept onto the options. And don't even bother reading YouTube comments (or comments anywhere else, for that matter). What has happened to common decency? Does hiding behind a keyboard and computer screen free us to be dicks to each other?
The only thing that I've really enjoyed lately is immersing myself in Mass Effect 3. I want to see how the trilogy turns out. DON'T TELL ME! But even then, I enjoy the game and the escape that it provides, but I also know that there are other things that I need to be doing. I cleaned house today (my apartment and the house I'm house sitting). I went grocery shopping and made dinner. I can't escape into Mass Effect 24/7, although I did sink one of my weekend days into it, since then 2 hours or less, and only after I got my grading done.
The problem with all of this is that while the media covers the negative, there is a reason they cover it. We watch it. We click on it. We read it. Google, YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, they all track what we pay attention to--what we talk about. We ourselves can't help but look at the negative, seek out the negative, talk about the negative. And therein lies our challenge. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July. I don't know what I'm doing because I don't know if I'm still house sitting or not. But I will tell you one thing. I am not going to be on Facebook. I'm not going to be on CNN.com. I'm not going to be reading the negative. I'm not going to talk about the negative. I'm not going to be negative as much as I can possibly help it. I can't control those around me. I can't control you. Most of the time, I have a hard time even controlling me. But tomorrow, I'm not going to be angry. Not because it is the Fourth. Because it is tomorrow. And tomorrow has to be a better day. Friday will be another tomorrow and another better day. I'm going to go as long as I can without paying any attention to the negative. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a sticking my head in the sand and trying to pretend that I'm not sitting in a hand basket and wondering where we're headed. I know that I'm up to my ears in student debt. I know that, thanks to a do-nothing congress, the interest rates on a lot of student loan debt just doubled. I know that the government is watching us. I know that other governments are being overthrown. I know that man feel that parts of our own government are trying to take away our rights. I also know that all of that made me feel powerless in the first place and that led to my rage. I don't need it all 24/7. I don't need to be connected all the time. Tomorrow, I do go up to my parents for a barbecue. I'm not taking my laptop. I'm tempted to not take my phone (the only reason that I will is because my wife is abroad and we only have contact sporadically, so I could miss the one window for the week). Tomorrow, I'm unplugging until I have to grade papers.
Think about what makes you angry. Ask yourself if you are seeking it out. Ask yourself if you can do anything about it. Ask yourself if it matters that you are thinking about it right now. That's what I'm doing.
Now if you'll excuse me, there are still plenty of Victor Borge videos on YouTube.
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