*Ffffffffffffff* *Ffffffffffffff* Is this thing on?

Hello, dusty old blog.  Long time, no see.

I've taken a bit of a holiday from the interweb this past month because... well... it's a horrible, horrible place and I must spend time on it for work, which is about all I can handle these days.  I'd like to do my part to make the internet less horrible and a couple of years ago, it seemed there were others trying to do the same, but sometimes it just gets the better of you and you have to take a break.  That's where I got to last month.  Basically, the internet is an abusive boyfriend who keeps promising it loves you and it needs you and next time, things will be different, but then you give it another chance and suddenly, you find yourself trapped in that same cycle of abuse and you keep going around and around until one of you just up an leaves the relationship for both of your good.  The internet isn't really going anywhere so....

The intenet is not the only thing like that.  I could name a whole host of things I could do with less of these days: facebook, 24-hour cable news networks, religion, pundits, politics, the presidential race, Barry Manilow albums... I've taken a break from most of these things in the last month.

And then there is the noise.  Just while typing that last paragraph, I was interrupted - had to actually get up from my seat to answer the phone, or referee a fight, or fix an an offending electronic device - five times.  There are only two sentences in that last paragraph.  There is just so much noise in life right now and I'm trying to find a place where there's less of it.

 I'm also finding, as most bloggers eventually do, I suppose, that I have less and less about my family to write about publicly as my children are getting older and their lives are more their own story to tell, less mine.  The community on the internet is not what it once was and I kind of miss that.  Perhaps I'm just getting less and less introspective. Or more and more hermit-like, I'm not certain which. 

It is my goal to continue this blog, as I've always said, for myself more than anyone else, but to do it a little more thoughtfully. Because right now, while there's a lot more to say; I think I might be saying a little less.  That whole talk less, say more, thing.  To that end, I share here today, not something that I wrote, but something that The Dormouse did. They have been studying Nelson Mandela and apartheid and they were asked to write a poem.  This is hers:
Half of a Person

 All those leadsrs,
Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, 
they create speeches that bring people together.
The crowds watch, while speakers captivate
All these races, all these faces
Crowds got eyes
the size of pies 
as they watch 
and sink into the words
of freedom, of liberty,
of kindness, rights, and truth.
The all speak things
that others might disagree with - 
but those who don't agree
are only part of a person. 
Only half,
because if you're whole
then you won't be so narrow-minded.
You'll be focused on reflections, 
not what is right in front - focused on meaning,
not words - liberty and freedom, not power and money.

Because if you're focused on what's right, 
then you are whole.
But if you're too stubborn,
to not see
to not listen to the joys 
and fears
and beliefs - 
if you won't even hear, then you are not whole.  You're faking it.
You are only half a person - 
and the rest of us 
are waiting around, wasting time
for you to figure it out.
How to be whole.

 Here's to listening.