I have been pruning my Facebook and Twitter friends lists and my blogroll lately. The reason for this is simple: I can’t take the friggin’ negativity any more. My god there seems to be a lot of down people on these interweb tubes. Is this limited to the social circles in which I travel or is there a prevailing wave of depression making it’s way through the U.S. these days?
“I need the purple pill (the one that makes you happy)” Just get the hell out of bed.
“I’m fat.” (Yeah? So am I. Stop eating.)
“No one looks at me.” (Stop being ugly on the inside!)
Listen, I know that a lot of people in this world have a lot of problems. And the gods know that I have bitched and bitched and bitched (like right now!) on this blog on more than a few thousand occasions but when Every. Single. Blog. Entry. or every twit, tweet or twat is about how horrible the world is because your clothes are too tight or the oil ran out of your car or your hairdresser bleached your hair too blond or you’re shocked I tell you, shocked because you just found out that a hamburger with cheese and bacon wrapped in roast beef is bad for you and you’re blue flunking it all becomes very, very tedious.
It’s dragging me down, baby.
You want something to bitch about? How about the fact that there is no cure for AIDS yet or that our government is spending money like a sailor in a whore house by throwing money in every direction hoping that something somewhere gets fixed or we are eating food that is undoubtedly going to fill us with cancer 30 years from now or that today’s kids will have no imagination because everything is being electronically fed to them. You want to complain? How about the dead Americans and Iraqis in a war that doesn’t seem to have an ending or what about all the men and women still sitting in their living room full of despair everyday because they lost a loved one. What about the way we shove our elderly into nursing homes or burn oil in these outrageous behemoths in the interest of having the biggest car (and smallest dick, apparently) on the block? I could go on and on and on about issues that have a national or even global effect.
I like writing fluff pieces here in this blog. (Hey Paula!) I also like writing the heavy stuff once in a while. And yes I do complain a lot. But goddamn it, life is not that bad and when it is, it’s probably going to be something that you’ll laugh and/or be embarrassed about 10 minutes from now anyways so for the love all that’s holy mix it up a little bit!
I am going to try to do something this weekend that I’m not sure I’m capable of doing. I am going to power down the iPhone and leave it in the drawer of my nightstand both Saturday and Sunday. My contact with the outside world will be with real human interaction. I’m not going to twit, tweet, FB or interact with anyone that isn’t either talking to me on the landline at the house or better yet engaging in a conversation face to face. I’m going to hike or go to the beach, chase storms, take pictures and spend time with my family and recall what life was about before I became so embroiled in this digital revolution that I forgot what the sun looked like and what a sunny disposition felt like. You want to talk, call me on the home phone and c’mon get happy about it. Better yet? Visit me!
Enough is enough. I’d break into song here but I can’t remember if I prefer the Barbra or Donna part.
