Why Quit Now?

Most days I desperately want to quit. Social media, that is. I'm so sick of spilling my coffee, only to be inundated with ads for paper towels before I can get to the kitchen. Oh, yeah- I don't want to see the big, bold headlines that Willie has died again and that Neil has passed out onstage in front of six million fans while debasing Donald Trump, whose mother had a secret bible that she got from Mary Magdalene.

Who knew that I would ever miss the good old days of imaginative fake news headlines:

"Pitbull Eats Mobile Home"

"Hillary Pregnant With Alien Baby"

"Arthur Godfrey's Three-legged Son Makes Olympic Team"

If I lose track of my dear friends' birthdays and funeral notices, I will have cut nearly all ties to the USA. Keep reading these blogs. The fact that I haven't said anything important yet increases the odds that I might at any minute.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X7mdCx7SZA

 

 

What This Town Needs

Expats leave homes for different reasons. A new place becomes home. If we're all just walking each other home, let's just keep on walking. Keep loving. Rock breaks scissors but love conquers all. Tell 'em Groucho sent you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kGaKT7dMyQ

 

Write Real

Sometimes it's easy to forget that there are more good people than bad. I won't debate the definition of "good" or "bad" here. The ones in charge have succeeded in having us argue about politics, religion, immigration and equality. I still know a good guy when I see one and I'll bet that you do, too.

Be still.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ae6WXvMA0

 

Waiting For A Bus

If religion and politics are basically control tools, I have a suggestion. Don't play. 

Do any of those jokers in government or in the pulpit ever look like they're having a good time? No, of course not. Take a look at a kid in a mud puddle. Watch a cat with a box.

Whistle a tune and you're a songwriter. Paint animals and sunsets on your shoes and you're an artist, a fashion designer. 

Get your mind into the gutter and keep it there. Love like your life depends on it.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW3VNAkCf-4&list=RDJW3VNAkCf-4&start_radio=1

 

So They Say

As always, some things are better, some things are worse. Do you suppose we're near some end, or do you see a Golden Age on the horizon?

Today's villains are world class. I suppose we have Marvel comics to thank. That, politics and religion.

Heroes seem scarce. Maybe I just don't know where to look anymore. Bruce and Lucinda are still at it, more fiercely than ever. Jesse Welles is here. There are some old school journalists sub-stacking here and there. A young  reporter couldn't find a job. 

Don't give up. Peace and love have been down before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7dNU_8myA&list=RDfK7dNU_8myA&start_radio=1

 

My Favourite Planet

As I watch the news from across an ocean, I struggle to keep even a flaccid upper lip. The struggle for attention and power and revenge dominates most all of any media coverage. Folks who wanted to be famous but had no talent and men who craved wealth but weren't born to it battle cruel people with no empathy and bad guys who were bullied or abused, by parents or schoolmates, for attention and revenge.

Here I sit in a little corner of paradise, cut off from the everyday kerfuffle, and try to make sense of it. Of course there is no sense to be made of it. 

If one of the madmen drops the big one, then I disappear like everyone and everything else. Short of that, I have to file the sad state of human affairs along with the other sad factors of life. 

Love is the only alternative. It's easy. Its value is incalculable and its cost is free. 

The deck is stacked, dear friends. It's their dice. I salute the brave combatants who keep the struggle alive and I would love, more than anything, to be proven wrong. Looks to me like cheaters win.

Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war.

 

What A View

On a day like this I feel like the oldest dog in the pound who just got taken home to live like a king for his remaining days. As Kurt would say, "If this isn't nice, what is?"

I am finally learning to tune out the static from the news. Oh, I'm still outraged and my heart is broken on a regular basis. I care as much as ever. Anguish that I'm unable to convert to action, however, won't change the world.

Did I come along at the right time- you know, Elvis, hot rods, peace & love- or do I just romanticise the life I've lived?

Who cares? I've sung my songs to the sweetest folks in the world.