Things Are Better & How Dare They?

C'mon - with a title like: "A March Past of Kitchen Utensils" how can anyone say that classical music is boring or stuffy? That's the title of this piece:

It's by "Rafe" (NEVER-EVER CALL ME RALPH) Vaughn Williams.

And accompanying that little ditty, let me say my life is back on track after yesterday's annoyance. That's all it was, really.

As those things do, that series of small events seemed massively important at the time. Today, with things back on track and calm, it's in perspective. It was a series of little bothers and nothing more, and that's good. I can breathe and keep moving.

That brings me around to how funny people can be. Yesterday, for instance. Nothing was Earth shattering. No single issue was really all that big in the overall scheme of my life. But it was front and center and it was what I chose to focus my attentions on, and that, in the final analysis, was silly.

Then I looked up from my own bothers this morning, and I looked around and noted the bothers everyone else is dealing with. Some are much, much bigger and far more important than mine. I have to be grateful for my little bothers being little, and empathize with those dealing with worse. So yesterday I was silly and selfish and self-centered. Which is okay, too. We all get like that sometimes and as long as it is only sometimes, it's okay to be like that.

Then there are those who think it is all about them, all the time. Some people I've run into, and some people I see on television or elsewhere, seem to think that what they find endlessly fascinating fascinates everyone else, too. And it usually doesn't.

You've heard them, I'm sure. They're so prevalent any more that you may not even notice them, but if you pay attention, they're all over the place. They are those pundits who perpetually throw out all-encompassing "we" statements. Like when some pointy-head know-it-all is expounding upon their particular issue du jour and tosses the all inclusive, all encompassing "We" into the arena."We think..." or "We want..." or "We do..."

At that point I want to throw something hard and sharp at the talking head and demand, "Excuse me? How dare you presume to speak for me, and for others like me?"

For instance, I just Googled "white on black violence" to get an example of this kind of nonsense, and a bunch of stuff came up, including a blog post by one of these talking heads who presumes to talk to for me, too:

So let me state this plainly. White people, we are massively failing with our white fragility. When we are asked to do the very least in empathetic listening, we center entire conversations around our own feelings.

We argue with people of color about their lived experiences of racism. We say "not all white people!" and "all lives matter" and totally miss the point. We ask people of color to educate us, and to be "nice" about it. We talk about our good intentions. We bring up the times we were also treated badly.
Why? Because we can. As white people living in white supremacy we have the power to take that focus because society values our words more than those of people of color. It's hard to even recognize we're doing it. But it has to change. We have to be able to comprehend a point about racism without demanding that a person patiently hold our hand and explain it to us very delicately as to avoid hurting our feelings.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amelia-shroyer/white-fragility-is-racial_b_8151054.html

This woman is an idiot. We don't think she's an idiot. I'm sure she's got a following who soak up that stuff, and slaver all over their computer screens and have to wipe it down when they're done. After all, she blogs for the Huffington Post. But I don't presume to speak for other people. I speak only for myself and I think she's an idiot because she is presuming to speak for me, too, to know what's in my mind, how I behave and the content of my character.

Now, before I go off on a rant, I'm going to turn this to something amusing to me. I hope it's amusing to you, too.

A personal example supporting the Concept of What Fascinates Someone Else Must, Ipso Facto, Also Fascinate Me, occurred when I was standing in the local grocery store the other day. I was buying a bunch of stuff for a working lunch for a group of colleagues. While I'm standing there, waiting for my turn to pay, this complete stranger walks up next to me, pulls a magazine off the rack (it was People or something), held it up in front of me and said, "Isn't this terrible?"

Glancing at the cover I saw some unknown person's photo, a splattering of "headlines" and nothing of any interest whatsoever. I looked at this woman, who was looking at me expectantly, as if there was no choice but for me to agree, and said, "Frankly, I don't care. I have my own life and that's enough for me."

After a brief flash of surprise, she lowered the magazine, put it back in the rack and said, "You know, you're right" as if that was some revelation from on high. Then she walked away. Whatever.

It's all just weird and silly and... human. Although, thinking of it, I wonder if herds of cows or sheep or horses or... whatever do stuff like this? Without the holding up part since they don't have opposable thumbs, of course. I'm sure they communicate in a way known to themselves. Do certain members of the species presume to communicate for everyone else? Hmmm. I feel a study coming on... Not by me, of course. I'm too busy thinking and talking and writing for myself. Someone else can take it up.

Now - I'm off to live my life and have happy times. I hope yours are, too!

Best~
Philippa

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