Confession Tuesday

I'm super late. And I'm writing off-the-cuff for real. I'm annoyed. I won't give you a full blown rant because whining is exactly what's bugging me.

Let's start with the blogosphere: Bloggers still whining about the them vs us controversy that started with an expressed criticism about how a panel of bloggers at BEA was presented. The core sentiment was how the group was presented and what that message meant. It was never a personal attack nor an argument about the quality of the panelists' blogs.

Seriously, people, let it go. There is real shyte going on in the world. The most ardent defenders argue that they began blogging because of their love of reading and sharing about what they've read. Then what difference does it make what a professional critic thinks of your efforts? Are you writing for the same audience? Hardly. Does someone else's opinion affect what you're going to continue doing or how you do it? Hardly. Do you think the majority of readers who have already chosen who they relate to care what someone else thinks about their reviewer of choice? Hardly.

Moving on. There are folks ragging what the President is doing or not doing for any particular group whether it's the LGBTQ community, African Americans or women, you fill in the blank. People, let's see beyond our own agendas. Anyone paying attention to Iran, North Korea or those dark folks in Africa that too many of us regard as a single country? AIDS is wiping out populations, militias are raping women and forcing children to wield guns, our planet is sick-thanks to us and we're whining about no one's paying attention to us?

Where I volunteer, residents at the shelter will routinely go off on staff (angry really because they feel powerless but they project on staff) accusing them of abusing their authority, complaining staff throws their failure in their face, curse them because the RAs have jobs and homes and they the residents don't. Well, you know what, stop it.

Shyte happens. Sometimes life sucks. But most of us and by most of us, I mean anyone who access to read this have far more to be grateful for than not. I have told the young women on ocassion: if you made it to this shelter you are far better off than the women on the streets or those stuck in one of the overcrowded, under-staffed shelters or the ones at the morgue. You aren't living under the threat of bombs or ditatorship. Put your crap in perspective.

If you've been whining lately: back up, shut up breathe. Letting go ain't easy. Living ain't easy. Would you prefer the alternative? I'm not ready to push up daisies. So let's chill.