Just read the world news. Would I be any different if I never read it? Or never heard any of it? Beside higher prices in the stores, which the country will correct, would anything in any part of the world news affect me immediately, personally?

No. Not at all. I can’t think of one National or World event – including the election – that I’d even know about if I ignored it, because there would be no affect at all on my personal life. Even the Yankees winning the world series adds to my personal story of coming from a Yankee family, but if I didn’t watch and didn’t know, it would not affect me.

Only matters which occur that affect me directly – like my wife falling or a family member dying – have any impact on the life. My concern with the rest of the world is just fluff. I rise, I work, I play with those 13 that are closest to me. The world is OUT THERE, and to keep it needlessly spinning in my mind is useless.

I read the NYT World news every day, and some local CT news, and me being someone who claims to care but can’t, think What can I do for those poor Somali’s, and in the back of my head it’s Fuck Them, the world has always gone round.

Organizations tell us we HAVE TO CARE and we HAVE TO ACT, or we’re terrible people. But all organizations have agendas and make money. The church, the world wildlife fund, amnesty international. They tug at my compassion for all humanity to give them my paycheck to NOT save the world, although these people have tried for hundreds of years and failed.

Stay local. It’s okay to share within your community, and with the ability to get to know people within a few miles of you, then you can show SOME concern to help. But even then, rarely is it done on any lasting personal basis. Canned food drive but never see the people who are starving, lest you judge them as addicts, lazy or minorities who get everything handed.

If I never selected another news flash, and just lived blindly in my own home, and cavorted with just the people I really know, my life would be no different at all. You see, the space that is flooded, in my brain and with my attention, with inconsequential news of things that cannot immediately affect me, is sometimes overrun, then my emotions get involved and suddenly I’m responsible for the Sudanese in some way, and should help somehow. So my empathy kicks in – why do I have ALL this good stuff, and they’ll never have it because of that area of the world? I should do something for fellow humans.

No. Not NO, I don’t want to, or No, I can’t but want to, but No, I’m here, and that issue there doesn’t matter in my life, and will never affect me in my day. How could it?

Should I stay eternally conscious of that plight, read all I can, empathize, maybe send money or write a letter? Then what? Will it end? But what if enough people donate and raise a voice? I don’t count on other people to coalesce. If they do riot, call me. Riot in New Haven to stop the genocide in Sudan.

See, the obsession that would ensue has nothing to do with my life and my own. That’s as taboo to say as I Love God. But it’s true.

I don’t need issues and news. If I never read another thing that has nothing to do with me (knowing I cannot change the billions of humans everywhere or affect them at all), then I can (which I and you already do) concentrate on my own tiny world I’ve created, and the people I’ve actually asked to share it with me. Is it abhorrent that I really don’t give a shit about Ukraine – the good guys to root for – or Iran – our enemy? How does any of that affect me at all?

I wake, work, spend time with my family and a couple friends. Watch some sports and movies to keep my mind entertained. I read and write. Have a drink, pet the dog, play my many instruments. Strum a guitar. That IS all I am and all I know. Keeping that good is all I know. I don’t know what we’re doing in Iran, and don’t really care. When it affects any of the things in this paragraph, when it comes to my door, then I’ll pay attention.

Can I stop Musk or Trump or X or porn? No. Just don’t care and don’t pay attention. When they come to my door I’ll handle it. If my nephew is drafted then I’ll become engaged. But that will never happen really. If it does…