Winter Break

Well, it's about time, huh?

I just realized this is my hundredth post. Huh.

Happy New Year! I've always preferred even numbers to odd numbers. They seem like they're a lot more willing to share. Here's hoping it's a good one.

My brother and some of my cousins and I spent a couple of nights in Greer right after Christmas, which was great. It's a pretty spot.



See?



Needless to say, we ate pretty well.

I've had a full month off for Winter Break, and I've gotta tell you, it feels great. It's nice to spend lots of time with family, in a house with a stocked fridge, pantry, laundry facilities, a garage full of bikes and toys, and a well-kept yard. My parents have it figured out. They've got an orange tree and flower pots. I mean, a lot of people have flower pots -- shoot, I have flower pots -- but a lot of people really just have dirt collections rather than herbs and flowers in them.

I'm really enjoying having a job where there's always work to be done, but no deadlines or homework that creep into my free time. I've always loved Winter Break, but there used to be an associated dread, with another semester of classes lurking just past New Year's. While it's true that I'm not incredibly excited about waking up in the dark and putting on cold canvas pants, I'll be refreshed and eager to pick up a tool again and get to work.

One thing I've noticed about not having to be anywhere is that I fall back into my old habit of reading too much news. I refresh the CNN page every half an hour or so, which is about 48 times as frequently as I need to. It's an exhausting habit, and one I should probably drop.

It'll happen, though, when I go back to work. No resolutions on this page, don't you worry.

Anyway, I was talking about the news being tiresome. I think it's a fairly recent cultural phenomenon, really. I'd guess it was sometime over this past decade that news became continuously updated for most people. I'm not sure if I should give the internet credit or the omnipresence of cable and satellite TV, but I guess that doesn't really matter. Most people who keep track of the news keep track of it frequently. I'm glad people are interested, of course, but I think that the mad grab for viewership (and advertising revenue) has caused news outlets to adopt a frenzied tone, where reporters deliver even the dullest information as if it's Earth-shattering.

Good Lord! Sarah Palin wrote a book! That means that she's literate, and that she's probably convinced she could be the President!

Republicans blame Democrats for not keeping the nation safe! Democrats blame Republicans for making the idiot hate America in the first place! Republicans express outrage at Democrats using the word "hate" in the same sentence as "America!"

The economy is still derailed! Wall Street urges consumers to buy things they don't need and houses they can't afford! Consumers don't! Libertarians tell the public they deserve the job losses for not heeding Wall Street's advice!

Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas lock up a bunch of people who oppose them politically or look Mexican! They insist they're just enforcing the law! Scads of mindless Arizonans believe them because they thought the pink underpants thing was kinda funny! Arpaio considers gubernatorial run; New Mexico steps up relocation advertisements.

Election! Click here for our pundit's picks for 2016!

Terrorism! Find out how to stay safe!

Gas prices! Ten easy steps to go green!

Communism! How to make sure Marxists don't give your kids health care!

AIDS! Save African babies by buying stuff!

Disney Channel star drunk! Pretend you're interested in this article and stare at tasteless pictures of a minor!

You get the idea. I think the public is probably experiencing collective media fatigue, and you can't blame them. Political pundits are wondering where Obama's extraordinarily powerful network from 2008 went. As it turns out, if someone is constantly told they need to write congressmen, or donate, or even care, they'll stop. It seems like inundation breeds apathy. This phenomenon probably gets even more extreme when everything is trumped up to be more important than it is. I probably won't ever believe any politician who acts upset, angry, or offended. You just can't pretend to be outraged about Obama's dog selection and ever be taken seriously. You can't run the nation into the ground with tax cuts and ill-advised wars and color-coded, unexplained terror alerts and expect me to listen for a moment about Napolitano failing to keep the nation safe. You can't say that political correctness is killing Christmas and whine about the media being too liberal.

People get sick of it and stop listening. And maybe that's good, actually. Then, there's still a chance that they'll tune back in when something matters and show up at the polls and at PTA meetings. If people kept listening, they might retreat into their suburban fortresses and stock up on guns or organic food, refuse to vaccinate their children, listen to JD Hayworth on the radio, believe what they see on their glowing boxes. They'll be convinced that everything they ever buy or eat makes them evil, or that all of this philosophy and science is some sort of trick to drag them down into hell.

So hopefully, in 2010, we stop listening to all of that garbage. Keep track of what's going on in our communities and the world, by all means, but don't let guilt or fear be a motivation. Russell Pearce is wrong -- immigrants will not destroy society. The Tea Parties are ridiculous -- health care is not going to kill us, nor will we become a bunch of dirty rotten commies. And, perhaps more important for this blog's viewership (three, I think, if I'm lucky, who are all of similar mind), Michael Moore and Robert Kenner miss the point. Yes, corporations are destructive and yes, industrial food production is horrifying. Unchecked, those forces probably could be catastrophic -- probably ARE catastrophic. But don't let anyone tell you that you, personally, have to save the poor people or the cows or the glaciers. I think it's probably a lot better to focus on living well than to obsess about having a light footprint.