Woke up this morning in another land...

…pushed the button on the Keurig, grabbed my hot coffee and stumbled over to the computer screen, where I found the usual stream of outreaches from politicians I never heard of, asking for money I have no idea if they deserve. Let’s make one thing perfectly clear —- I read relevant news articles, I watch PBS, listen to NPR, hit CNN and occasionally even catch some of Bret Baier on Fox. I listened to the debates, I listened to the town halls. I voted in the primaries, I will vote in November, I will vote for whoever is running against Donald Trump - probably.

But I have grown weary of the “personal notes” from talking heads I never met and in some cases never heard of — tired of the vitriol spilling forth, which drives me to the “delete” button. I am learning - forcimg myself - to hit the “delete” button more and more. ( I do linger on the ads from Armstrong Nursery with pictures of the beautiful spring blossoms…a moment of relief.) I try to sort through the dozens of daily charities I already contribute to every month, but sitll they write. And THEN— I woke up.

I woke up in the land of B.Ying.Dun. I can’t let this mass bullshit invade my world any longer. I.Yam.Dun.

I thought about the other nations who little by little, decade by decade have come under the rule of dictators, or dishonest politicians who structure the operations to favor themselves, whose systems are as artificial and out of balance as ours have become, in that all the power and the dollars have floated to the top. I thought about the defense method of the people iiving in those lands, which seems to have been just stepping away from the politics or governance of their worlds - who live beneath the radar, finally understanding that the assholes (translate that word into about twenty or thirty languages) who control their lives and their worlds don’t really give a shit about them and there’s not a hell of a lot they can do about it..

I blame this sucking up, this usurption of our private lives and minds —on the expanding world of internet communication that is basically cost-free, making access to our personal worlds as easy as the pushing of a button, and on the fact that a lot of people have figured out they can make a living on it, one way or another — on pushing those buttons.

The volume of intrusion keeps growing. This is only chapter one. I need to get back to real life. I think we all do. I’m just not sure how to do it yet.