It's Meta Day at DKos! I love Meta Day. The hostility flies, threads are in flames, those who love to fight click feverishly from diary to diary, looking for an enemy to destroy with a Top Comment worthy bon mot.
It's a great way to harden your attitudes, stake out your position on the far-too-broad continuum of Democratic ideologies, and get in a few digs at those assholes who always piss you off.
I just returned from a 5-day cruise to Mexico, although I never set foot in either Port. I had no internet access, turned my cell phone to "I'm soooooooo out of here!", and never watched a minute of news.
I spent my days on the Lido Deck, eating, basking, eating, listening to surprisingly good music, eating, napping, eating, reading in one of the wonderfully comfortable seating areas, and having a really fine dinner. Oh, there were singers, dancers, production numbers, REALLY funny comedians, and lots of places to walk to, fore to aft and aft to fore and up and down. I lost 2 pounds. I read Julia Child's "My Life In France" - delightful. I read Marianne Williamson on aging baby boomers and about how it takes 3 decades to really start being a student of spirituality. Very reassuring.
I came home with funny stories. I was relaxed, calm, and eager to pick up the pieces of my life.
I noticed that, in spite of my absence, nothing horrible had happened. Nothing life-altering has occurred on the political scene, Supreme Court notwithstanding. There have, no doubt, been thousands of diaries written about The End Of Life As We Know It, but my life is continuing right along here. We're doing our daily lives, trying to live lightly on the planet, trying to be kind to each other, thoughtful, generous, and loving.
I'm thinking that the biggest problem with blogging is how exaggerated our notion of our own importance can become. My ex used to say, every time the world ended "There are 3 billion Chinese who don't give a damn." That's an excellent sort of reminder that standing back and taking a deep breath solves innumerable problems that have not yet occurred.
Here are my thoughts for the day:
- 99% of what we frenzy about has not happened.
- If you really hate corporations, give your computer away, cancel your internet access, donate your cell to a women's shelter. Eat only what you grow or what your neighbor raises. Mend your pots and pans, raise goats and sheep for clothing and linens, generate your own electricity, dig a well, build a septic system and make sure it never needs pumping. And on and on and on. Or remember that you don't hate the corporations that benefit you so you probably need to moderate your rhetoric or risk being called a hypocrite.
- If we really want to elect more and better Democrats, maybe we need to start by defining what "better" means. At this point it appears that "better" = just like me. That's soooo Tea Party.