Reluctant to Read and Write

“Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.”

~ Thomas Gray

I just don’t feel like writing lately.

Most writers know this feeling. This is when you’re supposed to steel yourself and write anyway, put your chin up and your nose to the grindstone and force yourself to purge whatever you can, anything you can so that sentences and paragraphs appear on paper regardless of their usefulness or cohesiveness. I’m not sure why it’s so important to do this even when you don’t feel like it but that’s what this blog post is.

I also don’t really feel like learning anything.

I regularly visit a number of websites and blogs – everything from Bartcop and The Big Slice to Opposing Views and Consortium News – and there’s no shortage of informative posts and links in Facebook. But so much of what I see is negative and depressing. I just don’t feel like taking it all in.

© wallpapercavern.com

Just this past week I read about the Senate Majority Leader’s impotence relating to gun control legislation. I read about fracking and dictatorships in Syria and Detroit. I clicked on links to stories about the Keystone pipeline, the 10th anniversary of our criminal folly in Iraq, the Dirty War in Argentina in the 1970s and the involvement of the Catholic church, the conviction of two males who raped a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio, and the resemblance of an actor who plays the devil on the History Channel to President Obama. Oh, and I read about an 11-year-old girl being impregnated by her 21-year-old neighbor in Houston.

Is it any wonder why I’m reluctant to read?

I used to watch Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Jon Stewart and Bill Maher religiously. I don’t anymore.

I used to read The New York Times, TIME magazine, U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek frequently. I don’t anymore.

I used to look forward to blogging every day. I don’t anymore.

Given all that’s wrong in the world today, ignorance really is bliss.

So that’s why Sarah Palin’s always winking and smiling.