Time Out...

One of the best things about being on vacation is the vacation part.

You wouldn't think that we would have disconnected all that much from the news considering we carry it in our pockets now. But at least I did. I read the HCR newsletter each day and saw a few things here and there on BlueSky, but for the most part I was busy doing other things and didn't look at my phone. I didn't do much more than scan my newsfeed. I didn't pay all that much attention to what was going on in the world.

I knew we were at war, or excursion, or whatever they are calling it now, with Iran, that started before we left, but I didn't track it much. It was just a low hum in the background. I figured I would catch up on the horrors when we got back, or not.

I knew I had been mostly successful in detaching when I was getting an omelette at breakfast Friday morning and the chef was making small talk with the couple ahead of me in line. He asked where they were from and they said Texas. He followed it up with "Horrible about Austin." I had zero idea what happened in Austin.

Once I looked it up and saw that it was a shooting I realized two things. First that I had successfully avoided a lot of the news. And secondly that mass shootings are no longer THE news story of the day. My brief scans of the daily news would have, ten years ago or so, been filled with news of a gunman opening fire at a crowded bar. But it was not the lead. Not even close to the lead. Shootings are too common in America for a run of the mill mass casualty event to take over the lead from a war of choice and whatever else batshit thing our government is doing.

It's insane.

We live in insane times.

But for a week I was disconnected from it all. And it didn't change a single thing. Except I enjoyed my vacation a lot more than I would have if I hadn't been.

I've tried to keep things at a distance since we've come home. I put my phone down and get up and do something else when I notice that I've read a LOT of coverage of the day's atrocities. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up the disconnect but I'm going to try and hold on to it for as long as I can. It's that balancing act of being informed and being catatonic with grief for what our country is doing.

Will it work? Probably not, but I am going to give it a chance anyway.

Beware the ides of March...and the ideas of the Trump administration.