Stay Away From The TV

I was so engrossed in the news these last two years because of emotional involvement with politics. I got my voter registration card. I went to the voting location. I cast my ballot, and behold! My candidate did not win. I was furious! I was glued to the TV waiting for news of failure from the "other" candidate. I wanted to see another person fail because my candidate did not win. Is that vindictive?

I specifically watched news channels, that I knew would bash the other side. Funny, I would occasionally watch the media channels that "liked" the other candidate to just fuel my anger of the winning side. Saying, yup, they are stupid, and yup, they are totally uneducated. WOW! Now, I still have my personal beliefs and those won't be discussed here. However, this blog was dedicated to connecting gaps and bridging better communication. I am going to stand up now and say right and wrong is not what politics are about. And, let me repeat, we all have our beliefs, but that shouldn't always lead to disbelief of another opinion.

You see, I was closed minded and very spirited about what I thought was right and not what I believed in. I mean, I always get uneasy when I am corrected by my wife when I believe something to be correct, but when she corrected me it just triggered a very lopsided, warped sense of reality. Just because she was expressing what she believed to be the truth, didn't make her the bad person because I was wrong (she is always right). Quite the contrary-she is just expressing her belief in the truth and not to point the finger at me to express that I am wrong. This is what's wrong with TV/News/Media today. The sudden urge to point the finger, place blame, forget understanding and KNOW (as apposed to insisting) that your side is correct.

I am mostly never right. My wife deserves a lot of credit! We have been together for 20 years and I am just now seeing it. I saw glimpses before, say a couple years ago, but now I see it in everything. Today for example, I thought her cousin's last name was Darcy and not Barcy. She said Barcy, I thought jeez, I am stupid. And hence, this blog post. Ha! Yes! We all go

through these types of struggles, but her purpose in life is to love and cherish me, not to prove me wrong. FOX News and MSNBC needs a Cumbaya Moment too. Bill Maher and Bill O'Rielly need a Pinheads and Patriots beer manifesto. We all just need to get over ourselves and fix the wrongs and stop finding blame. Media based politics will tear this country apart not religion, nor money, nor relationships. It is the blame, shame, trash you game. I say, if you can't stand up to YOU......then, STAY AWAY FROM THE TV. You definitely won't stand up to them, especially if they are feeding fuel to your fire.

This bridge photo is courtesy of NPS.com and is of the Navajo Canyon in Arizona. Sheila and I have crossed this bridge a few times and it is sheer engineering genius. The gorge this bridge gaps is physically deeper than our hatred involved in the left vs. right politics. Soon, our politics and media will be as deep as this gorge. The two bridges over this gorge represent that no matter how deep the gorge, a bridge can still span it. Two sides can come together.

The Pendulum Swings Too Far

Imagine two hands, two fingers, two thumbs tearing apart a ketchup packet you just got at your favorite fast food restaurant. Now imagine that your fingers are too greasy from the greedy bite of the juicy hamburger you inhaled because you were too impatient to wait to eat. Was it easy to open the ketchup packet? Did you resort to placing the packet in your mouth to tear it open?

In order for me to get rid of internal terrible feelings about our nations politics, I have to resort to analogies while I look up facts and watch TV. The analogy of the ketchup packet being separated by two hands, fingers and thumbs is a direct correlation of our main stream media and political affiliations. Try and tear open a ketchup packet with one hand without using your teeth. Did it work? If you managed to pull it off it was difficult at best. Our policies in America can not be opened with one hand it has to be two hands-two sides. And, while our main-stream media plans to show our nation divided, I do not! Although, we need to get better and quit bickering.

Greed (The juicy, greasy hamburger) spoils everything. Money, power, your wrong and I'm right, you said this, I said that-is splitting the nation in two. It makes the two hands re

sort to sticking the ketchup packet in the mouth. This, of course, causes adverse pr

oblems like economic tragedies, more greed, protection of assets, placing blame without looking into yourself, stress, shootings, not-so-certain foreign policies and just simply, not getting along withe other side. The Pendulum swings too far left and right. We (The American People) need to find the center of manic unreality. Stop finding negatives with others and work on affirming strengths. You know who you are! Media and politicians. Yeah you!

I work hard to positively motivate people. Sure I get mad and angry, and before I took a look at myself (a long look I might add) I might have blamed someone else for my behavior. But it is time to center your actions.

The pendulum needs to settle so we can repair the clock. The pendulum swings too far. It needs to come back to reality.

What bridge can be built to close the gap between far left and far right?