I’m sitting in the dark, listening to the lawnmowers as they pace the neighbourhood. As usual, I’m troubled by the world and am amazed by how big it is and how many horrible things happen in it.
Personally, I’m pretty happy. I’m scraping by, I enjoy the people I’m around, I have a good time with both my job as a musician and my work at House of Musical Traditions – but perhaps I’m listening to the radio too much… but if I don’t listen to the radio and read the news, I’m slipping into that masturbatory bliss of self-contained ignorance.
People treating people wrongly, wars on the verge of beginning, advantage taken advantage of. So much abuse out there. So much spite.
I read the news today, oh boy…
“Man charged for cow abortion drug in girl’s drink” – North Korea and South Korea and nuclear tests and Greenland’s screaming “I’M MELTING!!!” It turns out the LEAST of our worries is H1N1 despite the thrill of the panic.
Don’t worry, we’re assured, there’s still cause to be worried – it could be REALLY bad come fall!
Fear-mongering is the business of the press and I hate the fact that my brain is adding SOUNDS in the background of the headlines – sounds of lips smacking and salivation – how excited some of those reporters must be when they can twist something into something REALLY juicy. There’s plenty of really bad stuff out there, but the glee with which our deteriorating situation is broadcast creates all the self-fulfilling prophecies of the stock market… which cycles into everything else… which generates the murder-suicides and the men burning their homes down to collect on the insurance… and the loss of insurance. Pay check comes tomorrow. I’ll pay my health insurance tomorrow. Easy come, easy go… but the coming is getting so much harder.,.. no jokes please. And the hits keep on coming. I was listening to a commentator on NPR talk about reality television and how exciting it was –Â why, just in the last few weeks there’s been some VERY exciting things! Apparently the You and Me Plus 8 show (on one of the “educational” stations) is showing a shift because the marriage upon which it’s based is disintegrating! And Farrah Fawcett is televising her entire bout with cancer so she might be (though of course, I, like everyone else, hopes she recovers) the FIRST PERSON to let us watch her die on television!
I’d like to find this reporter and slap them. Maybe do worse. I’ve seen people die – and people who are fascinated with death need to watch this and get some impression of what it challenges, how afraid even those who claim to be religious are (75% of end-of-Life care expenses are spent on those who claim to be religious – clawing to stay in this world…) – and people who think they’re problems are important, filled with drama and dark, maybe they need to watch a parent die of cancer to get their head on straight and understand what’s really important.
