Political Boundaries

I know I can’t be alone in this. It’s about the political debates, the name-calling, the mud-slinging, the lies, false promises, twisting of facts, and the down-right ugliness involved in the heat leading up to an election. I can’t do it. I just can’t. There is a fine line between knowing enough to be able to vote intelligently, to vote for the heart and soul of this country, and knowing too damned much.

My feeling is that life is too short. I’m very careful on social media not to engage in politics or religion, but to try to post things that are uplifting, positive, good, decent, and often funny. Funny is always good if it is done in a light-hearted way and is not cruel or mean. There is already enough darkness in the world. I want to be part of the light. As such, I find that following the aforementioned political regurgitations on a daily basis just weighs me down. It does. And it is capable of spilling out into other areas of my life, if allowed. That cumbersome, dark cloud would follow me around and rain on all my parades, if I let it.

Not happening. I am the guardian at the gate of my mind, and I’m not allowing it to be filled up with crap. And it’s a choice. We don’t need to lap up every degenerate crumb that falls from the mouth of the politician. Some things are just too dirty to put into our mouths. Or our minds, especially considering the source. That is not how I choose to live my life. I love that we have free speech in America, and that we say pretty much what we want. I will also defend everyone’s right to do so. But at the same time, I defend my own right to filter out the crap. Just as I don’t have to gawk at the grisly scene of a fatal accident to know it was horrific, I don’t have to listen to every last dribble of political conversation to know that most of it is staging and posturing, bullying and bluffing. The big ugly.

Deciding to use the “spam filters” in my own head affords me to have a less stressed life, and use my energies towards ideas, concepts, and creations, that I deem worthy of my time. My philosophy for all things in life, including politics, is “take what you want and leave the rest”. There will always be someone else who will gladly hoover up the scraps, because they feed on them. Well, great. It saves me taking out the trash.