Noisy

It’s too noisy right now. Everyone is talking, nobody is listening. There is so much background noise. It’s an election year, so that is normal to a point, but it’s worse right now. The pandemic has added a huge amount of noise, since the majority of us have never lived through a pandemic before, I get that it would be noisy. How can anyone make any sense of anything with so much noise happening. I have considered that it is all by design. In fact I am convinced that it is all by design. How can we turn it all down?

Duck hunting season started yesterday. Seems like an odd way to transition from that first paragraph, I know. But here is my thought on that: These hunters have turned down the volume. They go out to their wooded areas, in this case they are likely near water, and they are quiet. While they wait it out, they are quiet. Any hunting season requires a good amount of silence about it. Yes, it gets noisy when the shot gets fired, but up to that it is a peaceful moment of solitude for the hunter. I wasn’t raised in a hunting family, in fact the thought of Ed out in the woods in camo truly cracks my up. But I get the draw, the appeal of the solitude of the process.

So that is literal silence. But not everyone is cut out to be a hunter. I think about the idea of having to drag stuff back out of the woods and cleaning it, and I am out. Not my thing. But if I want to have that kind of peace they have before the target gets hit, I have to find my “forest” as it were. We all should be trying to get to a more silent spot, even if it is just for a few minutes.

Back in the restaurant days, if we wanted some quiet for a moment, you ran to the bathroom. People tend to leave you alone in there. But it had to be a quick hit it and quit it thing. Linger too long and they will come looking for you, and things can go to hell fast if you stay away from your guests too long. But for those few moments, it was kind of peaceful. Smoke breaks were never a way to get some solitude, because someone else would always want to go out with you. That’s no good, because it is always the chattiest person, and I don’t smoke, so that didn’t work for me either.

But the majority of the noise I am talking about comes from the media, social and otherwise. It’s 24/7 and getting away from it is nearly impossible. And people are obsessed without realizing that they are. I know I am, I am on Facebook far more than I should be, and I don’t realize how much time I spend there. I keep thinking how awesome it would be to walk away from it for the next month and a half, but I know I won’t. Especially since I found the video of the guys clog dancing to different songs every day. How could I leave them? I just found them!! Thankfully I have no interest in the Tik Tok or other apps out there. I would be even less productive than I am already. But it’s noisy as hell, and people just post things to start an argument. Arguments that nobody will win. Fights about things they do not truly understand but think they do. And it gets louder and louder and nobody listens. Just noise.

I am throwing someone under the noise bus right now. My brother Paul. He keeps posting political stuff. I am quite sure he thinks he is educating people. But he is having the same people jump on there to fight every single time. Nobody is learning anything, and he certainly isn’t changing the minds of any of the people that respond. They just fight, he comments with something that backs up his original point, and they fight more. Noise. Just useless noise. Maybe he thinks he can reach one of his liberal friends and they will have an epiphany. Not likely. So I took the opportunity to bag on him yesterday, by commenting not about his post, but about how he needs to step away from the noise for a minute, actually 30 minutes, and get his Coronary Attacked Ass back to the gym. You want noise? I can be the loudest person in any room. Convincing people to change their political affiliation ain’t gonna matter if you drop dead while you read National Review. This will be my new approach with him. Just like trying to get him to vote for a democrat would be an act in futility, this might be too, but at least I am trying to be productive.

But I got off on a rant there. Any opportunity to attack my brother, you know? But there is a point, at least in my mind. Once in a while, you have to step away from it. All of the noise. And do something good for yourself. Maybe you meditate. Perhaps yoga is your thing. Even a noisy gym can be an oasis as long as it takes you out of the fray of the social media/regular media for a little bit. It can not be healthy for your mental well being to be immersed in it so much. Go out in the woods, or out on a boat. Take a drive and see the beautiful countryside. But quiet all that noise.

***Here it is right now, however, Paul. I am about to get noisy as hell to get you back on track to taking care of yourself. I have people on my side on this, and at least one of them lives with you. The only path to peace and solitude will be to comply.