Stop clubbing the (fill in the blank)!

Just because I like this protest poster from the 70’s doesn’t mean I really care!

I am beginning to think it all comes down to the fact I don’t care enough about stuff. Never have. It’s been all about my own survival (albeit sometimes adventurous) and trying to maintain a certain level of comfort, without much wave-making other than scowls of disapproval and despairing, but mostly private, disappointment in the outcomes of several issues I thought I cared about. I don’t carry signs or march in marches. I’m not angry enough to do that but, conversely, not much makes my heart soar enough to get me out of the house either. I suppose I could make a blank sign; that sounds pretty easy. But why should I make and carry a sign with nothing on it to protest that I don’t care enough to carry a sign?

I kind of admire all of those misguided souls at Glen Beck’s gathering in DC last week. At least they are out and about (and getting their smirking, righteous mugs on television). It’s not that I don’t like crowds because, sometimes, group adrenaline can catch me just as off guard as the next person.

Coming from an era where Sarah Vaughan was my end-all of singers and the Beatles were an affront to my sensibility as to just what good singing is, I was never able to jump on anybody’s bandwagon in show biz, swooning with ridiculous passion for an ephemeral what? Screaming fans at concerts, drowning out the performer(s) you paid good money to see, are anathema to me. I got over that way early. I think it was a Beach Boys concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco—my first mistake in concert going and almost my last, although peer pressure put my butt in useless seats at a couple of very large venues after that

This is not an old fart thing. At least I don’t think it is. I was never much of a show-off in the streets (or concert seats) even when I was a young flatulant (did I just make up a word?). In the future, if you see me out in a crowd holding up a sign for or against something (hopefully, important to the future of mankind), expect to hear from me shortly thereafter regarding fund raising for my cause, but it’ll have to be damn serious stuff! If the sign is blank you’ll know I’ve gone too far with my neutral mediocrity.