The Black Parade
That is the song I am listening to as I write this - one of the latest released singles from My Chemical Romance. It's a great song, heavily reminiscent of Queen and David Bowie, if you like that pure, musical rock n' roll.
Orlando is an insane city. Maybe it's the heat. It seems like every day this past week at least one elementary, Jr. High or High School has been in lock-down due to gun sightings in or around school grounds. Last Friday the 42nd Orange County homicide of 2006 happened in a High School courtyard. A 15 year old and 17 year old got into a fight over a girl and the 15 year old ended up dead with 3 stab wounds to his head and torso. What the bloody hell?
One down-fall of this job is that my co-workers love to talk about all the news. Maybe it's always been like this...I've been in an extended news hiatus to save my sanity and live in ignorant bliss. Well, I've been watching Jon Stuart, but he pads the ludicrous and depressing with much-needed humor and it enters my brain in a dulled manner. Unlike the pathetic shock-value local news stations use to one-up each other with all the horrors of our world and community. My co-workers repeat bits and pieces of what they hear on TV and it sends me running to my computer to fill in the blanks and get the entire emotional account of the horrors of people's lives. It's like this "Oh My Gawd!" adrenaline rush. The need to know the inside trauma of others' lives. What is America's obsession with impending and present doom? I sometimes wonder of our society is set up in a way that doesn't allow for happiness.
People look at you funny if you say you're happy or appear to be too happy or content. We are made to always be living on edge - never actually OK with anything - we need more, need to weigh less, look better, we are never secure, can't trust anyone or anything...someone is always out to screw us so we need to hire this person or buy that product to prevent ultimate screwage.
Now I'm all for changing the world, social justice, peace, and I'm not going to lay back and let environmental and social destruction explode around me - in this way I am definitely not content...But shouldn't we aim to be happy at a micro level? Is it socially irresponsible to feel happy?
Orlando is an insane city. Maybe it's the heat. It seems like every day this past week at least one elementary, Jr. High or High School has been in lock-down due to gun sightings in or around school grounds. Last Friday the 42nd Orange County homicide of 2006 happened in a High School courtyard. A 15 year old and 17 year old got into a fight over a girl and the 15 year old ended up dead with 3 stab wounds to his head and torso. What the bloody hell?
One down-fall of this job is that my co-workers love to talk about all the news. Maybe it's always been like this...I've been in an extended news hiatus to save my sanity and live in ignorant bliss. Well, I've been watching Jon Stuart, but he pads the ludicrous and depressing with much-needed humor and it enters my brain in a dulled manner. Unlike the pathetic shock-value local news stations use to one-up each other with all the horrors of our world and community. My co-workers repeat bits and pieces of what they hear on TV and it sends me running to my computer to fill in the blanks and get the entire emotional account of the horrors of people's lives. It's like this "Oh My Gawd!" adrenaline rush. The need to know the inside trauma of others' lives. What is America's obsession with impending and present doom? I sometimes wonder of our society is set up in a way that doesn't allow for happiness.
People look at you funny if you say you're happy or appear to be too happy or content. We are made to always be living on edge - never actually OK with anything - we need more, need to weigh less, look better, we are never secure, can't trust anyone or anything...someone is always out to screw us so we need to hire this person or buy that product to prevent ultimate screwage.
Now I'm all for changing the world, social justice, peace, and I'm not going to lay back and let environmental and social destruction explode around me - in this way I am definitely not content...But shouldn't we aim to be happy at a micro level? Is it socially irresponsible to feel happy?
posted by Gade at 11:47 AM
2 Comments:
dear gade, i'm so glad you're blogging again!
you know, i'm fairly content with my life. there are always things i'd like to do better, but by and large my life is good and i have much to be grateful for. occasionally, i feel guilty about that. hearing and reading about everything that's wrong with this world and this country sometimes makes me feel bad that i'm not suffering more. but that's hardly a constructive attitude, right? i think we should use our happiness or strength or whatever you want to call it to help others out, make things better, even if it's on a small scale. i don't actually know what you do for work these days, but i'm sure you can have that effect on your co-workers and others...you always had that effect on me, anyway!
geez, i just realized that your last entry (which i just noticed) describes your job...sorry about that!
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