How many times this week have you looked at social media, or the television, or listened to the radio and wanted to cover your ears and scream “make it stop?”
Last week, Virginia Republicans nominated a most controversial candidate to run for U.S. Senate. I won’t promote him here. But, like I told you long ago about Donald Trump, I won’t vote for him either.
Available at The Write Side Shop (click the pic)
In other news, I may in the future still vote for a Republican candidate but, whilst I have’t called myself a Republican for along time, I now know that I never will again.
I had a friend, with whom along with others, I spent a good amount of time in the mid-2000s writing, and blogging in the Virginia Blogosphere. We got lots of attention and we made a huge impact.
But, that sort of fizzled, for many reasons.
Not the least of which is how many of us became disillusioned with the whole political process.
I’ve written about that before.
I’m just not playing the game any more. I can’t defend the indefensible.
Even when there are times, and there are quite a few, that I agree with the President, I just can’t jump on the Trump bandwagon.
And, even though I’d like to see the current Senator retired, I can’t support this other guy. There’s an alternative, but I need to learn more before I make the decision to, as I did in 2016, vote third party.
But that’s not what I intended to write about.
I used to think that my writing and my activism would make a difference, that it would have an impact.
It really didn’t. That’s another reason I left it behind.
See, my thought is that I can make this world a better place in a different way.
So, I’m spending my time creating art, and theatre, and writing.
Most of the time these days it’s theatre.
I readily admit that I’m not really one to pursue “meaningful” theatre. I’d rather entertain, and be entertained.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s some incredible work going on out there. And it’s important work. I’m just not sure that I’m the one to direct it.
(yet)
But the lighter stuff, the silly stuff, the fluffier stuff, is also important because we all need to laugh.
Look, there’s a lot of ugly in this world. We’re not going to change that overnight. We may not change it at all. We live in a broken world.
But if through theatre, or art, or writing, I can make this world a little happier and maybe push aside some of the darkness, well then, that’s just enough for me.
Still, there are days when I look at the news and thing “I have to do something.” But in reality, other than changing my profile picture on Facebook, what can I do? I don’t trust politicians to listen whether I call them or not…reality is I just don’t trust them at all.
Don’t get me wrong, even without political party affiliation, that doesn’t stop me from trying to change things in the ballot box.
It’s just that, on a day to day basis, the best I can do is to work to make the world around me a little brighter.
If we all did that…well…then perhaps we’d get somewhere.
But, let’s be clear. It’s more than forwarding that Facebook message.
Your means of making the world a better place will be different than mine, as it should be.
We don’t have to start a movement.
We just have to be moved…and then move.
In other news, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor, Lionel Richie, was born on this day in 1949.
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Most of the time these days it’s theatre.
