“Do the next thing”

So, it was right around the time of the 2008 general election that I changed my blog header design.  The country had taken a turn for the worse, and I was more than depressed about it.  I changed it to a freaky blah set of colors and plain text.

I used to have this cute coffee beans with a coffee cup thingy on the top.  I don’t know if I can ever get it back.  Back in 2006 when I started this thing, I was way into it.  Erik showed me a few things and I was off.  I kept doing all sorts of things to it.  I was finding my way around HTML and making cool things happen.  It was like magic.  Now, the magic is gone.  I can’t remember anything about changing things up.  All I’ve been able to do is change the colors on the header…still so blah.

So, in case anyone stops in here, know that I don’t like it, but in time I’ll put something there that I do like.

I remember the saying, “Don’t talk about religion or politics with friends.” This wasn’t spoken during a teaching moment while our family was gathered around the dinner table.  It wasn’t stated with our family all gathered around the TV when Nixon was resigning.  It wasn’t even the stuff of conversation with us when we were on one of our long road trips between Illinois and Maine.  It was something I overheard someone say while my parents had friends over to drink and play cards at the dining room table.  It wasn’t necessarily meant for my ears, but you know how children hear everything.  It’s a voice I hear regularly in my head when I run through “Rules to live by in polite society.”

Hogwash.  I hear that and I know why our country is trashed.  Too many in my parents and their parents generation didn’t talk on these topics.  They buried their head in the sandbox and decided that the political questions and concerns were too contentious and made pinochle games and coffee clatches too uncomfortable.  Would that we instead just talk about Joe’s fight with his wife, or Ed the bar owner falling down the stairs and never being quite the same again.

It is quite possible that those who spoke that night, and those who’ve said it over the years, had very valid reasons.  Looking at where I am today, I wonder about those who went before me.  Maybe they tried to be involved but burned out because it seemed hopeless, or because they were doing more than their share of the work.  I can understand that.  Did they run into a mini political culture within the campaigns they worked?  I get that.  I’ve worked for ten years, but today find myself throwing my hands in the air.  It seems too far gone.  Let the 30 somethings with the energy have a go at it…

Yikes, am I any different than the generations that came before me?

Depression is not a treatable malady.  Ok, maybe medically it is, but it isn’t one sanctioned by care groups or kind hearted people.  They, the kind hearted, don’t know what to do with someone who is depressed.  Someone in that state shatters their peace.  Confuses their set of cause and effect rules to live by.  Let a woman announce she is pregnant and terribly sick with morning sickness, and they bring meals for the rest of the family.  Hear of someone breaking a limb? Ladies dive in to do laundry for the household.  Lose a job, invite them over for dinner so it helps lighten the burden on their finances.  Maybe get them some money from the church, too.  Move?  An Army of folks show up to pack up and/or unpack the house, or both.  Let someone declare that they are depressed, however, and everyone says they’ll pray, and they probably do, and then they keep their distance.  Someone who is depressed, after all, is a mystery and a drag.  Especially if that person has little in their life that would construe them to be down in the dumps.  From the outside everything seems to be in shape:  Job? Check.  Health? Check.  Marriage in tact? Check.  Good kids? Check.  Bills paid? Check.  Nice house? Check.  What would anyone do for someone like that, anyway.  There really isn’t anything, I guess.

The contest is for sure and for certain.  Facebook has won that challenge.  If only I’d known they were in a race for my time and creative energies.  I’ve succumed to sometimes creative one liners in my status bar rather than writing about the times of my life here.  Hmm.  What to do….every new direction begins with the first step.

A couple years ago an old college friend suggested I write more.  He was then blogging for Townhall.com.  Now he’s hunting down acting gigs; I’m not sure if he is still writing.  I told him then that I was into a lot of things and I wasn’t sure which direction I was supposed to go in.  I didn’t know where my energies were supposed to be funneled.  I chose to stick with the things I’d already obligated myself to, and the writing went away.  Except for snippets on Facebook.

Today I find myself without all of those other responsibilities.  I actually have time that I can choose how to fill.  I’ve filled it lately with sprucing up our upstairs bathroom.  That has led to the hall which is my current project.  I’ve documented it all…on Facebook.  Photos and everything.  It is easy and far reaching.  Face it, hardly anyone knows about my blog.  Me even; I forget that it’s here, and has been since about May of 2006.

So, will there be a continuing battle, or can this blog and Facebook peacefully and productively coexhist.  Time will tell.