Take a Break for Your Sanity

Mark Morford, SF Gate columnist, explains why he doesn't, and we shouldn't, spend every waking moment absorbing all the bad news around us. Snippets:

....Not only is there is more to life than politics and murder and mayhem and BushCo running around like he's the whiniest king of the sandbox, it's also that those other elements, those seemingly insignificant, fluffy, pointless divine things like sex and design and books and the color of your lover's eyes actually, if you pay full attention, turn out to be far more vital to the planet and to your spiritual health than any toxic abuse BushCo could ever smirk out to the world. Sure columns like this one don't get me as many clicks as the pointed outraged double-barreled criticisms. Sure they don't inspire as much hate mail and love mail and wonderful supportive replies and offers to come on slightly snide conservative radio shows to debate angry talking heads on the finer points of whether Bush is a corrupt malevolent demon or just a hollow sad imbecile. No matter. For better or worse, I refuse to wallow. My job is to offer perspective. Your job is to take that perspective and balance it with your own and read your ass off and get as informed as possible and filter and digest as best you can. The world's tragedies absolutely deserve our immediate attention. And our hope. And our divine raw funky sexed-up intellectual perspective. This is not a question. But what it needs even more is the counter-energy. For us all to remember to shut it all off and get the hell away from the computer and go have a glass of wine and a deep tongue kiss and a romp and a an intense book and a hot sweaty yoga class and a soft swoon to an incredible blues singer. This fuels the resistance. Rekindles meaning. Steals life back from those who would deign to devour it with pitchforks and judiciary committees and heavy artillery. After all, real life is not in the dour headlines. You know this. Real life is not in BushCo's blank confused smirk. Real life is where you launch forth, right now, just after this period coming up, this one right here.