Heartsick

I don't have the heart to do a 'this n that' today.  Frankly, I'm sick to my stomach over the assassination of Charlie Kirk.  There is no other word for it.  He was assassinated.  You can call it a horror or a tragedy - it's certainly those, too - but that doesn't change the fact that he was assassinated.  

From all I knew of Charlie, he was a good man.  He advocated for discussion over violence, and they killed him for it.  He was trying to get people to talk about issues and to think for themselves.  Well, we can't have any of that now, can we?  Feh.

There's a lot of crap out there this morning with people saying vile things.  Those people can wither up and die for all I care.  If you're one of them, please go far, far away from me.  

I'm not sure what this will mean for our country.  Hopefully, it'll be a watershed moment and those following the advocates of violence wake up and see that theirs is not the side to be on.  Hopefully, freedom will win this battle.  

Right now, though, I'm heartsick.  And yes, it's the anniversary of 9/11 - don't think I haven't considered whether Charlie's assassination wasn't planned to coincide with this.  It probably was.  

'Never forget' turned into 'only remember on 9/11' and then ignore the causes altogether.  

I'm gonna go watch TV.  Something totally not involved in any of this until I can stomach being online again.  

Peace.  Out.

Decreasing the Anger

I'm angry all the time lately.  Turn on the news, open FB, commercials, TV shows... Blerg.

Anyway, it's not good for me.  Hell, it's not good for anyone to have that angry buzz in the background of their brains 24/7.  It raises the blood pressure, increases the stomach acid, tenses everything up, and makes people turn to their drug of choice more - caffeine, nicotine, alcohol*...  Nope, definitely not good.  So, rather than hash over what's making me so damn angry - which was my first thought for a post this morning - I decided to go over some of the ways I'm trying to alleviate the anger.

First, get the hell away from the things that are making you angry.  Turn off Facebook and Twitter.  And if you can't do that, train yourself to scan over the crap to get to what you need from those venues.  Take a walk.  Go fishing.  If you don't fish, go somewhere you can stand and look at something pretty while wiping your mind clean.  Let the air blow the gunk out of your system. 

Listen to music instead of watching TV.  Or if you're like me, listen to music on your TV - cuts out the chance of watching something annoying.  And if you're listening to the radio, change the channel when the radio news comes on.  Throw in your favorite CDs.  For me, when it gets really bad, I turn to Rachmaninoff.  Whatever chills you out.

Find something pretty and happy to look at.  Cute puppy videos.  The birds outside.  Plant websites.

Discover something new.  The other day I spent some time discovering what happens to all the pits from pitted olives.  (One place uses them for fuel.)

Read. Not 'message fiction', but something with a good story or with interesting information.  Something that takes me away from the anger.

Exercise.  Shadow boxing helps, especially if you imagine you're knocking the snot out of someone stupid.

Then once the anger is down to an acceptable level, I can go back to the insanity and weather through it once more.  I've even gotten to the point where I can laugh at it.  It's all so ludicrous, I wonder why we aren't all laughing ourselves silly.  I mean, when the former governor of Michigan said that everyone saying it didn't happen is proof it did happen, I about fell out of my chair.  She's such a silly bitch, how could anyone take her seriously?

The most important thing to remember is that I can't do a damn thing about any of it, so why I'm letting it harsh my life is beyond me.  It is what it is.  And whether it gets better or worse is outside of my control.  All I can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. 

Anyway, I hope this helps.  I'm a little less crazypants this morning and so you got this post instead of the rant I originally sat down to write.

*No, I have not taken up drinking again.  It was just another example.  Not that I haven't thought about it.  Some days the world makes me wish I hadn't dumped the last of my alcohol down the kitchen sink.  When the anger gets too much, I could seriously go for a gin and tonic.