Refugee from Reason

Okay, so they’ve become a replacement for landlines in great measure. I guess I understand that, though I don’t use mine for that purpose. As I’ve mentioned in the past, it’s not a comfortable instrument on which to talk and I dislike “Bluetooth.”

Perhaps that’s progress. Well, more than that. Remember back to the old days when sitcoms had teenagers on the phone for what was portrayed to be hours on a 30 minute show? Parents would holler to get them off the device. I’m wondering if we haven’t reverted to that.

After all, as in my recent post regarding Facebook, what compels us to have the need to be so well-connected; more than that: So constantly connected.

Have we come to a place in our lives, or to some extent, society in which everything, no matter how minute, requires sharing of some sort? More importantly, do we ever consider that, perhaps, this sort of minutiae is just plain boring?

“Hi, I’ll be there in five minutes,” someone told me on my cell the other day. “You’ll get here when you do,” I responded, “Why the hell are you calling me? I don’t find it a courtesy and personally, I think the fact that you’re late is discourteous.”

The point is that at the end of the day, we’re not that important and very few of us are that interesting. If you haven’t realized it by now, your friends, close and good as they may be, often simply endure this foolishness.

I think it’s time for all of us to become more thoughtful, not in a “courteous” manner, but rather, in the vein of thinking about things: life, the world and so forth.

We’ve done far to little of that and look at our human condition, to say nothing of social and national conditions.

For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is privacy, I’ve removed myself from Facebook, which is a challenge, as I’m sure you’ve read.

But that’s not the point of this post. Watching my wife on her Facebook page, I noticed no fewer than 18 posts by one person and 15 by another: All in ONE day.

First, what the hell do these people do for a living. Well, that should be “Second.” “First” should be, why the hell does anyone care if “so and so” was at the corner of 1^st and Main at 10:04 AM, getting gas at 11:12 AM, saw a chicken cross the road at 11:18 AM and had a good bowel movement at 12:08 PM?

This is not, in my view, a form of communication, but rather a display of inanity and severe cases of egocentrism.

Perhaps it is age that is upon me. I think that if you want to share some good (or bad) news with a friend (and believe me, no one really has 100+ friends in this world), it’s more effective and intimate to pick up the phone or have a drink to do so.

Beyond that, think about it: This material is there forever. Believe me, no matter how innocuous something someone “posts” on these sites can come back to bite them at some level and probably will.

I believe it was Huey Long who said something to the effect, “If you can call, don’t write and if you see ‘em in person, save the nickel and buy the vote.” It’s a metaphor, obviously, but you get the point.

I am so tired of the Right Wing slamming the National Health Care Act and Medicare. It is not “Obamacare,” as that bitch Bachmann tagged it: It is National Health Care. This is a heartless, dogmatic and borderline evil element of our nation to believe that we should not share in the help of others. Yeah, sure, there are problems with the new legislation; and there are clearly problems with Medicare, but they can be resolved. Right now, they’re all we’ve got and it makes me so angry when I hear this rhetoric on the part of those “haves” who simply don’t care about those less fortunate.

It is so extraordinary to me that we have become a nation so full of those who believe that G** is driving their thoughts and that those who can’t work or afford health insurance should just be left out or even discarded.

So let me tell you, this is an angry morning for me and for those of you who care to debate the subject, there is no debate. We take care of our own, and in many cases, those who are not our own. If it’s a religious issue with you, then forget it: It’s not. If you think G** should be delivering messages on how our government should operate, well, He has better things to do.

This is up to us and if you’re not willing to help your fellow man in this most appropriate manner, then it’s time for you to learn to or just keep your bloody mouths shut.

It is my birthday, a year from 7 decades. I don’t announce that, nor did I discuss earlier to at least tacitly solicit congratulatory notes. It is simple to me: I am so surprised to have reached this age.

Over my life I’ve seen many things great and small; good and bad. How odd that the bad: Wars, Wounds, Ex-Wives; a range of issues that most, if not all would consider negative, if not in case of some, horrific, come to mind first.

Not even my beloved sons come to mind first at this point, save that I don’t know how much longer I have which means to me how much longer I’ll be able to visit or talk with them.

They are older now; they have their own lives. Unquestionably, I know I am important to them and that they love me. But I am not a parent who remains in their lives constantly. We talk when there is something about which to talk; we love one another and that is enough I should think.

And, now, I’m done for the day…maybe.

I am surprised that I have almost made it this far. Tomorrow I will be 69, a bare 12 months before 7 decades. It is not that I am asking for a “Happy Birthday,” but rather that I made it this far, or at least I’m about four hours or so from it.

It is not as I would have thought it to be and I often wonder how, with all that has occurred in my life, I am almost there.