The Madness of America

We are all quite mad. That's okay. I like craziness because from madness comes change and beauty. However, madness takes many forms, and the less pleasant manifestations are the most prevalent at the moment.

Americans are stuck in a weird paranoia mixed with a near catatonic reaction to the World. Everyone seems out to get us, terrorists are plotting and lone nuts are lurking everywhere, and we take two paths; we arm ourselves to the teeth with fearsome weapons and we devote our spare time to mindless shopping and even more mindless entertainment. Be honest, who really needs an automatic weapon for self defense? I am totally against gun control legislation because I don't want the government taking any more of our rights, but, seriously, unless you live in a war zone, any ordinary hand gun or shotgun will deter evil-doers and you damn sure aren't going rabbit hunting with an automatic rifle.

We shop mindlessly. I love shopping, but I believe I use a little sense, yet, year after year, folks go out and buy enormous quantities of gifts at Christmas, using plastic, and put themselves in a financial hole they will never dig their way out of. Then, throughout the year them stress themselves to the breaking point as they struggle to  keep a roof over their heads and some food on the table.

Then, one and all relax by watching idiotic shows on TV ( how many people really think Duck Dynasty, America's Got Talent, and Real Housewives are worth spending more than 5 minutes with?), or watching overpaid, steroid fed, giants beat the snot out of each other on the football field and vastly overpaid baseball players who can't field their position or run the bases as good as kids I used to play pickup games with.

So we retreat, further and further into a cocoon spun of ennui and paranoia, a less than fine madness. The solution? Well, things can go 3 ways. You can shrink and shrink, numbing yourself with inane activity and various combinations of alcohol and prescription meds, until there is nothing left but a dry husk of a corpse. You can continue to retreat, letting all the insanity build until, one fine day, you explode and find yourself joining in some irrational political terrorism or running the streets as a lone nut.

Or, you can change the course of your lunacy, put down the credit cards and TV listings, turn off the overpaid and under talented athletes and celebrities, and let your fancies blow. You want to travel, write poetry, sing opera at the top of your lungs, learn Swahili, dance in Bali or climb mountains, go for it and, as long as you're not hurting others, who gives a damn what anyone thinks. You want to walk the woods where bears still roam or visit the wolves in the Arctic? Fine. You want to seek vampires in Transylvania, dive for giant squid in the Pacific or build a receiver to listen for messages from outer space, why not?

If you 14 or 84, it does not matter. If you cannot, due to physical or economic limitations, do what you want, then let your mind roam. Read, look at pictures, listen to music, talk to travelers in the strange lands and then let your mind go free. Your daydreams are far more important than shopping at Macy's and catching up on the Kardashians. Go crazy. Nothing wrong with madness as long as it is the madness of your choice.