= new reply since forum marked as read
Thank you.
All arguments are becoming binary as we lose the ability to see things from the other side. There must always be a winner and a loser.
Oh, and if you don't agree with me, FOAD!! 
===================
I have managed at last to carve out a few hours of joy each Friday, when I pick up my grandson after school and keep him overnight. I read and read and read to him. In the past couple of weeks it's been the Just So Stories, and I actually felt myself channelling Mehitabel the Cat when reading The Cat Who Walked by Himself, which was a remarkable experience. 
I was angry at Bush et al. for 8 solid years, and it is hard to climb out of that hole. Too much dust and ashes in the mouth ends up choking a person. That bunch is not worth giving up my life for.
Nor is it worth giving up the time I have left on this Earth living in constant anger over the shortcomings of .... well, everything. As a depressive, it's already hard enough to carve out that small space just once a week.
Good post, Will. 
Sid
I am telling people off...but not people who had a problem with the farmer ad. I used the ad only as an example, but could have used a dozen more. Post about my daughter-to-be turns into a long avalanche of darkness about overpopulation and the idea that bringing children into the world is an act of supreme selfishness. Post about my dinner turns into ten verses and a chorus on how the food I've chosen to eat is an indictment of my character. I chose to make an example of the farmer ad. Of course it had vivid anti-labor overtones. And there was an unavoidable racial angle. And it was a fantasy about a life that is being driven out of existence by massive agribusinesses. And those trucks are pollutive as hell. And Paul Harvey was a right-wing mouthpiece.
See, I can know all that - every last inch of it - and still enjoy the artistry and photography of the ad, and feel as well a nostalgic twinge when I remember the sound of Harvey's voice filling the sun-soaked kitchen of my childhood as his little five-minute "Rest of the Story" vignettes came from the radio tuned to WBZ in Boston.
That's the fragment of joy I mean. I can hold both in my mind and heart at the same time...and again, the ad is just an example. The people I am telling off are not just those who went postal over the ad; of course not. The people I am telling off are the ones who peddle darkness, glumness, doom, shame and recrimination with every living breath.
Cheers, Hissyspit.
I'll take a break or use the iggy feature, which I have up to now studiously avoided.
Until then, like the Dude I will abide, with the help of the old Prankster Maxim "Fuck Em If They Can't Take A Joke"
Gotta keep your sense of humor. There are lots of good people, lots of funny people, lots of positive, bright people on this site. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think that some of the abuse, the bullying, and especially the bullying and abuse done under the rubric of rooting out bullying and abuse (untangle that knot, Gordo!) hasn't taken a toll. It has. By the time the post election gun troll season was underway, to quote Dr. Gonzo, "The fun had drained out of it".
But, the place is what we make of it. I. refuse!!! to give in to dourness.
After Granny D admonishes those (too many of us here at DU) about always judging and applying "precious political standards" to all candidates and officials, she ends her speech with the following observation:
(snip)
This is great work. Did you, as a child, hope that one day it would be in your hands to save the world? Then rejoice. Is it not indeed joyful to find yourself embarking on a life of great meaning? Yes, that is the great peace march smile we saw on the streets of New York and Washington and San Francisco and a thousand other cities and towns, is it not? Aren't we joyful for this moment, when all is at stake? We are, we are. And do not stand in the way of our joy.
For what is life, if not a theater of the soul where we might take our part for good or ill? What better thing do we have to do in these months ahead than save the world? We will, we will. And do not stand in the way of our joy.
(snip)
Great advice, from a woman who lived for a century and witnessed all the good, bad, ugly, evil, tragic, and glorious in it.
DU Rec.
Observations and expectations are two wholly separate concepts and words with wholly different meanings... 
Maybe words are simply "not your deal"
End of March.
And you may be on to something.
Why did I think your wife had already delivered? Sorry, brain fart. Anyway, advanced congratulations.
My kids changed a lot about me, it's amazing how it happened.
DU never disappoints. Outrage over an ad paying tribute to farmers. Farmers!
I'm surprised there haven't been similar posts bashing the Sarah McLachlan ASPCA ads. Maybe that's because they don't run during the Super Bowl, which is another reprehensible part of our culture. 
This crap does get old. Going to log off and sit with my dog for awhile.
Unless someone just lost a pet, there is a celebration of joy there.
and I appreciate the honesty and straightforward attitude very much. I also agree with you and maybe some of us have learned a thing or two from your post; I know I have.
You're a pretty good writer. You oughta do somethin' with it.
about a particular person, but I have found it applies to several people;
"If the world were perfect, some people would complain because they had nothing to complain about."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
the fact of contradiction and the need for joy. We do our best to do the best. Even if we don't meet the standards of the Most High and Righteous.
I didn't watch the Stupid Bowl ( 
) but I still appreciate what you've said here. Very eloquent.
You made me think of the time I interviewed Jonathan Winters, and among his many witticisms: "certainly beats the ol' dirt nap." Every time I find myself upset, I try to haul that one out (when I'm not upsetting myself too much to remember it, that is), and give myself something else to think about. Always helps me snap out of it.
LOVE the Whitman quote, btw!
If you or any given person chooses to submit, that is perfectly ok, I completely mean that.
But if everyone submitted to it, it would be totally depressing. There was a guy at last Monday's staff meeting that expressed his indifference to the Super Bowl, and I said THANK YOU!!!!! When he did that, it made me HAPPY! 
