“Something was different last year, and if I had to put a finger on it, I’d say it’s when we all collectively realized that there may not be a happy ending. Stupid keeps winning, ignorance keeps winning, racism and bigotry keep bubbling up even as we get traction on gay marriage, the climate keeps changing, the drought goes on, Congress gets more worthless and the media that covers it gets even more so, sports becomes ever more rigged and gimmicked and sports media gets ever more shrill and predictable, and the tech boom shoots money out of a firehose at complete assholes while everyone else tries to scrape by in a world where a suburban 3-bedroom townhouse can cost a million dollars.”
I kind of wish I hadn’t been that prescient, but there you go. One week in and I’ve already had to take one mental health day. I haven’t made it through a five-day workweek since mid-December.
“So I guess that’s why I haven’t been blogging. I don’t particularly want to engage with the world right now. I want to punch out, take refuge in a fireplace on TV with the Christmas tree still up and my sweetie snuggled up nearby. Or in a quiet dark dive bar where I’m the youngest person around by at least ten years. Or in a dell near Weathertop a few days out of Bree with Black Riders no more than a day behind. Or in Las Vegas, or Tahoe, or Japan. Sometimes you just need an escape.”
Replace Vegas and Japan with, say, Greenock. Or Galway. Or hell, even Pismo Beach or Morro Bay. Or anywhere that has cold beaches and the sun setting into the sea. As it is, we still haven’t gotten the tree down…and once we do, there are a couple of battery-powered copper wires of LED lights that I can use for creating that ambiance in a pinch.
But right now, it’s about just being able to pretend that the world isn’t coming to an end until I’m ready and able to help prevent it.