Here's What I Have To Say

JP and I spent the past two days at our Delaware house, completing the last of the packing and moving stuff to storage. It was a little bit bittersweet as there are things about that house that we'll miss. For me, it's all the birds that visit each day because they know I'm a sucker for feeding them. It was a nice house for us but it was never my end-all dream house so leaving it isn't as bad as I thought it might be. Thankfully we weren't there long enough to make many memories which makes selling it even easier. Also, everybody who knows me knows that the truth is I never loved Delaware but it was where JP worked so you do what you have to do and make the best of it. Bloom where you're planted blah blah blah.

JP stayed behind a little longer to finish things up yesterday afternoon while I headed out to go back to our Pennsylvania interim apartment. As I was driving I happened to pass a gun shop and was stunned to see that there was a line of maybe 15+ people waiting to get inside.

Not gonna lie: it unnerved me and sent a bit of a chill down my spine. I understand lines if donuts or cake or puppies are involved. But guns? Yeah, no.

I don't really want to be in a place where people are lined up to buy firearms, you know?*

I've been in deep contemplation for the past few weeks about social media and its effects on me.
For various reasons, a lot of my time is spent in front of a computer and when I step back and actually pay attention and be truthful - it's a lot more than "a lot of my time".  It's more like most of my time. Part of that is that my personal livelihood comes from artwork that I create on a computer or the fact that I sell things via computer. So with that comes all kinds of connections that have to be updated and monitored. Then of course I stray off course and wander down the rabbit hole of reading about things that in truth don't matter.
And it has taken a toll. A big one.

I used to not be jaded and now I kinda am. I used to have an attention span and now I don't have much of one. I used to have good eyesight and now I don't.
But those things are just the tip of the iceberg.
When you spend too much time enmeshed in the world of social media you can't really tell what's real and what isn't anymore.
This came to light for me just the other day. They were protesting in Delaware and things got ugly so I wanted to call my 80 year old mother to let her know that JP was fine (he was in Delaware and she knew that). But she had no idea what I was talking about when I told her about the protests. I had to bring her up to speed. This is not because she is in any kind of mental decline; it's simply because she just does not pay much attention to the news. She almost never knows anything about current events. She just doesn't see the point.

It's hard to imagine, isn't it, that someone could know not a whole lot about what's happening in the world they live in?

Yet I think she's better off. Way better off. She makes a great point about not seeing the point.

And I've decided to take her lead and edit what I let in.
There are so many better things to do with my time and fill my mind with.



*Nothing at all to due with a 2A issue