Gak!  I have been bored, boring, enamored of leaves turning, sick, and not really busy, but rather getting bogged down by the changing of the season.

 

It came early this year, messing with my biological clock.  One day, there I was at the kids school for “lunch with your grandparent” day, and WHAM.  A note says Flu Shots available.

 

I NEVER should have done that.  I zipped down the hall, whipped out a $20 from my purse and got my arm poked.  I went outside and the leaves started falling.  Went home and the baby was sick.  I know in my heart its all the fault of the flu shot.

 

I don’t react to flu shots. Or much of anything.  My body just sort of takes life in stride.  Two things that I have always been allergic to are pregnancy (honest to God, I am allergic to being pregnant, I break out in a body rash the whole time and it disappeared within 24 hours of giving birth) and I used to be allergic to red wine.

 

I cannot get pregnant anymore and have outlived my allergy to red wine.  None of that has anything at all to do with autumn.

 

I got a cold.  Not pneumonia. Not a sinus infection. A regular old NASTY cold, with the runny nose, the aches and pains.  I wanted it badly to be something more. Something a little more, well, ya know, more than just a cold. 

 

So, I am taking it easy. Because I do know my body. It is mean and nasty.  If I do not baby myself, I will get bronchitis at the drop of a hat and then it will be pneumonia.  Friday was a very SHORT day at work.  I was so drugged up that my head was full of cotton.  I am so glad I decided to defer payroll taxes until Monday morning.  I have a history of overpaying the payroll taxes if I am sick. Still, better to overpay than underpay.

 

So here I sit in bed. Watching the International History channel.  Which brings me to a question I have been wondering.  If we are all watching things like the Discovery channel, History, International History, Science Channel, The Learning Channel, National Geographic and PBS, why is the country still acting stupid?

 

I mean, have you looked recently?  Do people act any different than they used to, and I just missed it?  Take any microcosm.  My work for instance.  In a staff of roughly 26 people, ranging from college educated to high school dropouts 17 years old.

 

They don’t act any different than they used to.  I know for a fact that they all watch at least SOME of those channels.  Even the high school drop out dishwashers.  But I don’t get the feeling that they are learning anything about humanity or history or nature.

 

How can this be?  And if I am brave enough (or half drunk enough) to bring up politics, I find out that they are very uninformed about current issues. Worse, they don’t actually CARE about  current issues.  My 7 yr old granddaughter is more politically aware than many of the staff or even quite a few of the upper class customers that the restaurant serves.

 

I am right now watching a documentary on Baghdad.  Wanting to understand more about the middle east conflicts, I turn to the quickest and most entertaining form of learning available to me.  I have a digital recorder and a guide, and have to be in bed for the next two days to get better. 

 

Now THAT’S entertainment for me.

 

But, am I an anomaly?  I know I have been weird all my life.  I want to know how Saddam got to be where he did what he did.  People are not born monsters.  They are turned into monsters by the situations they encounter in life, whether or not they encounter them early on, late on or continuously.

 

I talk to people in my daily course of events.  I ask them what they think about N Korea probably having nuclear bombs.  I hear them espouse the same bullshit I hear on CNN or MSNBC or Fox news.

 

What do they think about a gentle, quiet S Korean as the new Secretary General of the United Nations?  They don’t have an opinion.  But, I say, do you think that this will change the course of the next two or three years and the way the world will deal with N Korea?  What? They reply.

 

I’m so confused.  How can we as a people have such resources for intelligent thought at hand and totally ignore it to watch Dancing with the Stars.

 

I don’t think I belong in this world.