Feeling a bit grumpy of late

I feel a bit like this dried-up puffer fish this morning.  After spending several hours online yesterday watching streaming videos and reading articles about the Democratic primaries taking place, I am exhausted.  I gave up my daily newspaper habit and watching television years ago and now I'm seriously considering giving up visiting websites like this one.    I want to be informed of what's going on in our world, but I think there's a point where too much input messes with your mind.

What was it exactly that made me so grumpy?   Politically-speaking, there were plenty of things that happened yesterday that caused my irk-meter to rise, but what created the most chaos for me was reading people's negative, very prejudiced and sometimes downright vicious comments on a variety of newssites.  I'm all for expressing one's opinion, but when folks can't state their thoughts and feelings without having to resort to name-calling, fear-mongering and gossiping, ooohhhh that makes me so angry.  When I'm all riled up, I'll admit that part of me wants to jump into the fray, write a nasty comment of my own and tell everyone they're full of shit.  The bigger part of me says "be the change I want to see in the world" and so I will step away from it all, calm down and do something today that brings positive energy to this planet.

I feel better already.

Comments

[leah]

yeah, the news is enough to make anyone grumpy. but i love that picture of the dried up puffer fish! so cool!

[Carla]

I've learned I cannot "go there" politically. I vote and I sign petitions, but that's all this soul is wired for. I don't debate and I don't engage in or follow political discussions simply because for me it's poison 100% of the time, even when I'm in the company of like-minded progressive liberals. Hope you find your serenity again soon, Miss Prickly Pufferfish!

[Marilyn]

I will fully admit to being caught up in the throes of campaign fever because it feels to me like the stakes are extraordinarily high right now for our country. But I choose to keep that fever personal--shared only with like-minded souls online or the occasional chat with coworkers (and the occasional blog post). I'm not working for a campaign and I'm not a big TV fan--I get most of my news from Twitter and a handful of sites and blogs. But I never comment on those sites and very rarely even glance at the comments--that's a whole different, ugly ballgame I want no part of. I try to constantly remind myself of the values that appealed to me about my candidate in the first place and to get myself 'back there'...because it's all too easy to take one's anger out about other things (like the fact that I might soon be out of a job) on the opposing campaigns. ;)