I’m wide awake. I’m not sleeping. If I could I would let it go”
-Bono,
Bad
The Unforgettable Fire
1984
Facebook is fun in the way that you are having fun when your baby nephew is walking on your face. Scrolling through the posts about brunch and weekends and political ideas is not really a nice place to be all the time. But we are lost in it constantly. Sitting in a meeting this morning I noticed pretty much every person buried in their feeds concentrating on the small screens in their hands. It made me miss something but I didn’t know exactly what at the time. Then I started to think. That’s another thing that time has shown me is no fun, thinking. It gives you the chance to see how messed ip things can be or how far behind you are. Did I miss the starting pistol here? Thinking too much gets me down. It eats away at me. Social media feeds that monster too. Sometimes I feel torn in two pieces. Long strips of what used to be me lay on the floor and there I am floating above it all looking at them. Being detached seems like a good idea sometimes. These days there are a lot of things I am looking to avoid. Always there to kick me in the stomach is good old social media. Another is political discussion. A third is the news. Yesterday was Monday. I woke up to a cavalcade of alerts about the unfortunate shootings in Las Vegas. Processing that was hard. We live in a country that likes its guns and its right to have guns so that is naturally where the discussion goes. I’m not a gun person but I’m able to acknowledge that there’s a much bigger issue going on than just that. We aren’t united. We aren’t even nice to each other on the whole. But that’s just the beginning. Puerto Rico is a big deal. It’s a disaster and the way it’s been handled (or not handled) is insane. People lost everything. When it was Haiti there were drives and collections and outreach. Puerto Rico didn’t get that. Know why? Because it’s the United States. The assumption is that because it’s part of this country it would have gotten support from its government. But it hasn’t. So there’s that. Then the gut punch came. Tom Petty died. I was done. Down and out. A trifecta of shit. So I did something. I went for a drive and cleared my mind and left my thoughts behind. I played “Listen to her heart” loud and drove down the street and I felt bad but good at the same time. Sometimes you need to. There are big goddam problems out there. I’m pretty confident they are here to stay for a while. I am also confident that we have some hope in getting beyond them. Some Monday mornings are a load of crap on the bottom of your shoe. Others morph into tough afternoons and evenings like yesterday did. But there’s a good chance that you can get around it if you’re able to keep your mind clear and your thoughts open. We all have hearts and feelings and that makes us united. We all know how to act and what hurts. Try to be compassionate. Try to put yourself into someone else’s situation and gauge what you do by it. Concerned about that hurricane relief? Actions speak louder than words. Sad about Petty? Listen to “Freefallin”. Upset about the Vegas shooting? Don’t post nonsense about guns and maybe think a little about what people do with them and how we deal with one another instead. Same hearts. Same blood. Same thoughts dreams and emotions. Human family needs some support and support does not take much effort. Thoughts and prayers only do so much. Try acting. No joke today. It just doesn’t feel right.
See you soon.
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