Wednesday, March 12, 2014

I feel a little bad for not posting for so long. The muse has been around, I just didn't pour her -eek! invite her here, onto this electronic page.

I kind of miss the tool that let me do quick easy posts on my blog... I think it was perhaps a google tool.. I think I stopped using it because Google became so freaking invasive. One of the (many) reasons I don't like being tracked digitally is that it takes up brain space.

Like remember when we had to navigate without GPS but use maps, handwritten notes, have conversations with people, sometimes LOTs of people, and we somehow got from point A to point B. Remember how it took up a lot of brain space to do all that?

So now, many of us mostly navigate with tools, and it makes it easier. We get to have that brain space for something else.

Thinking about how every single key-stroke can be saved somewhere takes up brain space. This pisses me off. So I'm working on stopping that brain wave, and still being able to maintain some semblance of privacy. (20 years ago it didn't matter if "they" collected all your data, they couldn't do anything with it. Now technology allows too much analysis of keywords - hell, all words.)

But the power of instant articles from across the globe has its advantages to be sure.

In online meanderings last year I came across an interesting guy. It was a post on Huffingtonpost about this guy in a coffee shop, who looked homeless, some cops and the knitting. Read it - good piece.

I've enjoyed checking out his site, and reading his views. Like a lot of bloggers, he is an excellent writer, but has gone through the pain of sudden fame.This forces a writer to make a choice: be more "politic", mild, perhaps offend fewer folks, also a privacy choice for many, or ... go for the jugular. In writing, I think there is a lot more payoff when the jugular is loved on. Not necessarily torn open, tho that is another place to find good stuff :) (can be damn messy, in my experience).

Finding one's voice is so hard in writing. And keeping it. Hell, in life, same problem, right? ("I know, right?!")

Being authentic takes guts. To me, it pays off.

Earlier tonight I was wondering about how presidents and politicians seem to enjoy the company of famous people, movie stars, as we used to call them. It dawned on me that much of this must be from shared experiences of living under scrutiny. Yeah yeah, there is the "cool" factor, from both sides, in hanging out with other hot shots. I get that.

But living under constant scrutiny, the "public lens", is a different level of difficult, and in both politics and ... stardom, there must be the constant struggle to maintain one's "center" or essential self. If you don't, well, we know what happens to those folks. They get into drugs, drinking, sex, or shooting weird pics of their private parts. Or they let the power go to their head, or they check out, or whatever.

Similar to the "brain space" comments above, I would think it exhausting to learn to maintain your core self, in the strong buffeting of exposure to, well, everyone. Interviews, radio, TV, internet, appearances, etc. Yeesh. How many of us would actually choose that life?

How many of us would REALLY be president, if given the chance? Not for a day, but four long freaking years. No wonder they come out of office deeply aged. Also, mellowed, I'd like to think.

It really is service, no matter what else. You become *owned* by the public. You BELONG to the people. Ego is needed, sure, but it also gets crushed in the process.

I was hopeful that Obama would come out as an ardent Moderate. Defender of the Middle Class, the Common People, Uniter, Reasonable Man, and Leader of the Entire Country.

I was hopeful.

I'm sad that he's seemed pretty unable to bring Knights (and Ladies) to the Round Table, to form consensus in the midst of this divisive country where extremism is allowed to set the agenda and name the costs that we all must pay.

Most of us are Moderates. Did you know that? Like 70% or more identify as Moderates.

So whassup with the fanatics taking over? Really? Are we that naive? Once upon a time we were all a bit less easily impressed by the shenanigans of the far right or left. Surely McCarthy taught us something. And drug parties of excess (I was too young, don't look at me). And other countries torn apart by radicalism: Ireland, Israel, now Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, stable Turkey even being affected.

Maybe we should stick with Radical Love. :)

I'm Sticking to my Knitting. My family, my job, my friends. Finding fewer causes. That's ok. The ones I care about get vintage that is worth something.
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