It could be because I’ve been under the weather, but I seem to have become slightly less tolerant these past few days.

             Whatever the reason, it seems a good time for me to stay off of the news boards that I generally haunt.  This illness-induced crankiness generally runs hand-in-hand with the inclination to take things a bit too personally. We all have opinions and none of us could be accused of tempering those opinions overmuch. I generally temper mine better than some, but don’t wish to run the risk of being banned from these boards that I very much enjoy. After all, I am a news junkie. I want to know everything that I possibly can as quickly as it become available, so the news ranks right up there with caffeine and nicotine on my list of addictions.

           One of the perks of living in America is the freedom of expression that we all enjoy and sometimes take for granted. Stories about abuse, the war, and politics usually run into long commentaries because everybody wants their say. Since I am generally a non-confrontational sort of person, I usually type out my comments and count to ten before posting.

          The reason for this is simple. Some stories simply hit too close to home for me to maintain any degree of neutrality. When I see someone post anti-military sentiments, constantly quote scripture in response to an argument,  or rush to the defense of an abuser, it brings out a very protective side of me. Words are powerful…especially in the hands of one such as me who is more inclined to biting sarcasm when offended. It is much harder to temper my sarcasm when I’m not feeling chipper….such is the case today.

          As I worked my way through the boards, I couldn’t help but notice that one of the posters is being his ‘usual self’. He is strongly opinionated and generally makes it a habit to see how much he can rile other posters. Sometimes, he is successful…sometimes not. It would seem from his postings that the only way that he can feel important is to name-drop semi-famous people that he has met and flash his educational merits into his postings in order to promote himself as more intelligent and well-informed than others. Based upon the responses, I am not the only one who finds him mildly annoying, distasteful, and a bit sad.  I generally ignore him because following up on his comments only validates his sense of self-importance.  Today, however, I found myself typing rebuttals only to erase them after counting to ten because it seems pointless to encourage him.  Darn shame, too…because those were some pretty biting rebuttals.

        Oh well, better safe than sorry, I guess. Maybe I’m just tired, but attempting to right the wrongs of the world is simply not within the scope of my desire today. However, being able to post on newsboards is always within the scope of my desire….so at least one goal is served by temperance on this occasion.

        So, until I am better, I’ll be pretty much avoiding the boards. Okay, so I won’t avoid them, but I won’t post. Scratch that….I will post, but I will count to ten before doing so.  Yes, that works. After all, who could expect a news junkie such as me to just go cold turkey and avoid something that she really loves?

arkmomy