And It All Just Went Away, Kinda

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I stopped thinking about politics.

I started thinking about ways to earn money instead. I found myself abandoning sites like TruthOut and reading Dosh Dosh as an unlikely alternative.

This all sounds very selfish and all, but it has worked out for me rather well. I’ve made several thousand more dollars than I would have otherwise and I’m not nearly as miserable as I used to be when I followed every evil act that Bush, Monsanto, Insert Random Big Corporation Here committed. I even quit thinking about how awful the local police are. That was hard to do, given that Sky and my school have both contrived to give me the inside view that I never wanted to see.

I hadn’t really been aware that I’d backed off from politics until I looked in an unlikely mirror. G, who was always the more apathetic of the two of us, now constantly rants about legal injustices, police brutality, corporate crimes and hypocrites in general.

I find it annoying. I try to change the subject, but he doesn’t get my hints. I can’t be judgmental here, because I was doing the exact same thing just a year ago. I will eventually work up the nerve to ask him to stop, once I can think of a nice way to put it. It brings me down.

I figure there is absolutely no purpose in ranting about politics unless one is going to do something to change them. Even then, it’s probably better to just go on and do whatever it is without talking about it endlessly. For example, going to the local farmer’s market feels good. I think it probably feels better going without carrying along the baggage of self-righteousness that I’m not shopping at Wal-Mart instead, you know?

There’s not much I can do to change things, when you get right down to it. At least nothing that I am willing to do at this point in time. So, if I’m not willing or able to stop corporate welfare (to give just one example), then why not go and read some poetry instead?

Everyone needs a hobby.

On second thought, maybe the Zoloft is just working really, really well and I’m part of the mind-controlled masses. You never know.

Deep Thinking

Such serious things my kiddos contemplate.

Sage got home from day camp and watched a Scooby Doo movie. After the movie, he turns to me and says, “Life is going by really fast. Soon I’ll be grown up. Then I’ll be a grandpa and then I’ll die. And I know what it feels like when you die. You feel nothing.”

He looked and sounded very serious. We talked about it for a while. The idea of “nothing” is not something that he has been raised to believe, so I am intrigued. Strange, the things he is imagining.

About ten minutes later, he asked me why people eat meat. He wanted to know if people needed to eat it to survive. He ended up crying because he felt bad about poisoning the ants in the front yard. (This was me, thirty years ago.)

We’ve had the meat conversation before. He’ll go a few days without eating meat and then cave and eat a pepperoni pizza. I don’t ever give him a hard time about it. We don’t eat a lot of meat in our house anyway, although, since this topic keeps coming up, I’m considering just going vegetarian so he won’t feel so conflicted. It’s not like I really like our factory farming system anyway…

It has felt serious around here lately.

Maybe this kid is going to be an activist.

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