We’ve all done it. We all do it. Children do it to their parents. Parents do it to their children. Students do it to their teachers. Congregants do it to their ministers. And, married people, well we do it to each other all the time. I’m tempted to call it “All-American,” but I suspect Asians, Europeans, Africans and Australians do it, too.
All of us zone out.
And who can blame us? There is just so much information that we are interested in receiving on any one subject, and so many other subjects which we need to know something about, that we just hit a wall when more than we need is delivered to us. We quite naturally just stop paying attention.
It can be something pretty simple. If I ask Karl why the garage door is making such a racket when it opens or closes, I really don’t need to know how to fix it, what tools will be required or thow long it will take to do it. Similarly, when watching The Dirty Dozen and Karl asks if it was nominated for any Oscars, he really doesn’t want a dissertation on the awards for 1967 or the life and career of John Cassavetes, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost to George Kennedy for Cool Hand Luke, but then was nominated again the following year for Best Original Screenplay for Faces and then later for Best Director for A Woman Under the Influence. See what I mean? It’s really hard sometimes to just answer the damned question.
So if you’re back from zoning out, I’ll let you in on a little secret. The news these days is sending me to the zone almost every time I turn on the television.
I want to know if any of the hostages have been released. I do not want to know what any specific talking head speculates about what will happen if and when all of the hostages are ultimately released. Guessing about how difficult negotiations have been, are being, and will be is more and somewhat less than what I needed.
It looks like our old friend George Santos may be ousted from Congress, perhaps before you read this. All I want to know is whether or not they kicked him out or if he resigned first, which probably won’t (or didn’t) happen. He’s simply not important enough to take up much of my interest.
This Hunter Biden thing is going to try my patience. In public or behind closed doors seems to be the current issue for where his testimony will take place, but it seems far from settled, allowing for a whole bunch of “analysis” on what will ultimately happen. So here’s the deal. I want to know if it’s going to be public because I’ll watch. Until then, include me out.
But the one that is about to give me a rash is the on again, off again, orders in a couple of the Trump trials as to what he can and cannot say or post publicly. Reporting on these legal situations tends to irritate me for all the superfluous detail that goes along with it when all I want to know is whether or not he’s gagged or ungagged.
There are many folks who have a rather visceral response to the use of the word “moist.” It can make me a little queasy, too. But more than moist, at least for me, is the word “gag.” It’s such an unpleasant little word, and it’s just all over the place these days. Just another reason to zone out.
It’s like the old song says, “Everybody’s talkin’ at me.” Not to me, at me. It’s kind of like when a high-ranking political official went on a nationwide listening tour a few years ago, which I assumed meant he was going to be listening to the locals who showed up. Should have known the purpose was for us to listen to him, while he was, of course, listening to himself.
Zoning out, tuning out, or dropping out—we all do it. Perhaps it’s a natural defense mechanism. If you hang around cable news for any length of time, someone is likely to complain about how the American people are just not tuned in to what’s going on, but some of us will start really paying attention the closer we get to next year’s election.
But even some of us who are inclined to follow the events of the day are finding it more difficult to do than is necessary because of all the unnecessary stuff that comes with the “news”—from those making it, reporting on it, and commenting on it. (I hope you exclude me from that last group.)
While the gag orders are being debated in court, would it be possible to look at a different kind of order for Trump and a whole bunch of others? Something more active than simply zoning out.
I humbly submit the need for a STFU order. Any takers? Besides Karl, that is.
