Woe Unto Thee!

I need a change of scenery, man. Things are getting a little too heavy around here. And by here, I mean everywhere. And not just me, but all of us.

What am I blathering about? The economy. The state of the union. The state of our health as a country and society. I hear it on the news. I hear it on the radio. I see it on the teevee. And it don’t look good. At least, that’s what I’m hearing and seeing. You know, what they want me to hear and see.

Paranoid ramblings? Perhaps. But if I was really paranoid, would I even be writing this?

Okay, this is freaking even me out. In reality, I’m just a bit depressed due to the intersection of our country’s general malaise with my family’s specific malaise. But a couple of odd analogies keep popping into my head.

For example, is it me, or does it suddenly feel like we’re all living out Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged? If you’ve never read the book, check out this summary. I read it in 1999 during the waning Clinton administration and it seemed to me that the events portrayed could never – would never – happen in America. And now, well, simply put, I want to stick my head out a window like that guy in Network, except I’d be shouting, “Where’s John Galt!”

Another example comes from the Good Book. I’ve been reading a lot of Old Testament history lately. Some stuff for the kooky factor, the “mysteries of the Bible” stuff, but also serious historical-slash-archaeological studies, even a book authored by a rabbi on Jewish perspectives. So now I’m thinking that I’m like this middle-aged scribe or something, hanging out in the Northern Kingdom or in Judah, just trying to earn a few shekels a week to buy a lamb every now and then to keep the family fed. There are prophets all around me screaming for Israel to repent, and I nervously watch all my friends, family, and co-scribes ignore them. Assyrian or Babylonian forces are gathering along the border, but the king is babbling on about “peace in our time” or having “a dialogue with Nebuchadnezzar.” That pretty much accurately sums up my feelings about our culture.

And what of this H1N1? Does the media want to whip us into a frenzy or what? It’s the flu! I’ve had the flu several times in my life. It’s incapacitated me for a day, two at the most, and even with my surgeries I don’t feel I’m in danger. We’re waiting for our doctor’s advice on whether to inoculate the children. Even that’s a toss-up. But this flu is not going to be the global pandemic the media wants. It won’t be a bubonic plague wiping out one-third of Europe. But on my night table, for a whole month, sat Stephen King’s The Stand (the wife wanted to check it out). You know what it’s about. Captain Trips and the end of the world. Finally, I returned it to the library. Not a book to be reading right about now, in my frame of mind.

Ugh. We all need a change of scenery.