I wish I had it in me to be as worked up as most of the people on my Facebook feed. My goodness, what a lot of churn. The best post I saw all week on social media was "My Facebook feed looks like Confederates got in a battle with a Skittles factory."
I haven't heard anything about my book. I'm hoping the agent didn't read it, since I rather think a book about Confederates and Reconstruction probably wouldn't go over well in the current climate. Far better to wait a week and let the tide of outrage wash over some other poor body.
I suppose I should enjoy the churn, since it appears the concept of dissent is on the way out. I don't know what happened to the Voltaire-ian principle of detesting what someone says but defending to the death their right to say it. I suppose it has died. That's too bad. I wonder how long it will take for all the statues and monuments to reflect only one flavor of opinion. I wonder when the people calling for the tearing down of various statues and memorials and honorary names in the South are going to catch on to the fact that some of their Northern heroes are also rather tarnished. And I wonder when the leaders of this effort will realize that what they are doing is called whitewashing history, and decide that's no good because, well, it has the word "white" in it.
My dear friend Beth was listening to me grouse about it and ended up inadvertently leading me in the direction of realizing that I am probably not anti-issue so much as I am anti-"pride." Not gay pride, pretty much any pride. I am anti-gloating, I am anti-sanctimony, I am, in large part, anti-bragging (except when it comes to the Young Prince). I believe that when you reach the end zone, you should act like you've been there before and expect to be there again. I suppose this is what makes me so dull on social media. When you tend to limit yourself to shallow comments on traffic and checking in at the movie theater, you are not going to generate a wide and passionate following. Of course, it also limits the people telling you that your children are ugly and that you should die in a fire, so there's that.
In any event, it was a much more eventful week online than off. We did manage to go to two movies (Jaws and Inside Out) and survive a lot of rain, and the YP made it more or less unscathed through a week of no school and no camp. This week, he is in seventh heaven at video game camp. I believe we may have found his niche.
This weekend is the first Fourth of July in a while that we have no plans, save the plan to get out and do something. It's also the first Saturday in ages that there are no piano or drum lessons, so we are planning to take advantage of that in some way...just not sure how yet.
I trust that the five regular readers will not be offended if I wish them a Happy Independence Day—however long independence remains.
Comments