My neck hurts from repeatedly lowering my head and shaking it. There is no way to avoid this without completely tuning out which is not a workable solution either, unless of course you are content to just be one of the sheeple and follow the herd into serfdom. A balance needs to be found, and strategery implemented, at least for me, balancing being informed and engaged, and purposely tuning out, knowing you just need to recharge before entering the fray once again. Otherwise it’s like playing tennis with twelve balls coming over the net instead of just one. You become overwhelmed with choices and even though they all seem important you can only focus on one. The result is you swing and hit air. You want to run away screaming. Burn out is real and debilitating. Even Jesus, who, as both God and man, needed an occasional break from the crowd. And please, don’t accuse me of comparing myself to Jesus. Way too easy. You gotta work harder than that. But I digress. Speaking of Jesus, thank God for music and fishing. Both activities, especially playing music, require all of my brain to be focused on making vibrations pleasing to the ear. Planning for, and completing the execution of bringing home the bacon, or the bass as it were, make it hard to simultaneously think about how Joe is allowing the insane ideas of the Squad to wreck the economy. Something primal about the hunt that wakes up and activates the deeper survival oriented parts of our brain that definitely turns the volume down on the “higher”, intellectual pursuits, like answering the question, “And how shall we live?” Don’t stay there too long as there is always the danger of the dastardly toxic masculinity taking over your being. Where was I? Oh yeah, I was describing ways of staying informed about what is going on in the world without suffering from outrage fatigue. Another strategy is to try to keep things in perspective. Feeling helpless to thwart the many injustices in the world (so many injustices, so little time), not to mention the insane US government policies that are destroying our beloved Republic can cause much grief, consternation, and unhealthy stress to the mind and body. Understand that there is only so much you can do, pick something, do it, and leave the rest to God. Pray. He wants to hear from us. Understand that ruminating and embodying constant anger and resentment solves nothing and hurts you.
With all that in mind, my pick for “outrage dejour” is the that of the authoritarian regime (gotta call a spade a spade here) in Australia warning medical doctors not to write, speak, or act against anything that is not official government policy, punished by the loss of license to practice. So the government is your doctor. No worries there as the government has ONLY your interests and well being at heart. Except the government doesn’t have a heart, only a bottom line, and an insatiable desire for absolute power. Coming to a country near you. Where’s my guitar? What’s the fish report say?