"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Silence Is The Most Powerful Scream...

My sincerest apologies for the lack of posting over the past week. Although this wasn't a pre-planned break I still should have said something by way of explanation for those of you who are nice enough to come here on a regular basis to read my stuff. It was rude and neglectful of me and I really am sorry.

If I were going to stay true to form as to my past compulsions I'd lie and come up with some type of innocuous explanation for my lack of commentary, like that I've just been too busy with other things or that life has just been so exciting lately that I couldn't make the time to sit here and write. I could lie to you all (I'm actually pretty damn good at it) but none of that would be the truth. The truth is that I just stopped caring. I stopped wanting to write, to rant, to rave, to debate, to piss off other people and to be pissed off myself. My fire went out, and I found myself not giving a damn anymore.

To your collective credit (and frankly, somewhat to my surprise) several of you noticed this change in tone and tenor well before my self-imposed hiatus, emailing me privately to say so and ask whether I was OK or not. I was aware that I wasn't writing much and rather just posting soulless minutia culled online but I guess that I should have given you more credit than that. Some of you I answered and some of you I ignored (again, I apologize for my lack of manners on that count) but please know that I really did appreciate the sentiments and your attempts to reach out. Sometimes people are so much nicer to me than I feel I deserve.

It was recently suggested to me by a friend who knows about such things that I might be manic depressive, and it's a possibility that I've seriously been considering over the past several weeks. It would certainly explain some of the patterns I've noticed over the course of my life: charging headlong into some new endeavour or project, throwing the entire weight of my heart and soul into the breach only to abruptly stop caring at some point and letting everything I've worked towards wither and die while I float seemingly rudderless on a sudden and inexplicable sea of ennui.

And that's where I now find myself: emotionally anchorless, rudderless and every other ship part I can recall from my nautical archaeology courses-less. I'm in a very dark place right now. The future currently appears very bleak to me and I don't see any clear course ahead that gives me any kind of hope for tomorrow. And to be totally honest the Christmas holidays, which I've always eschewed mainly for reasons of blatant consumerism and seasonal goodwill hypocrisy, are not making things any easier. I understand why suicides always peak around this time of year.

And to be completely clear, this is not a suicide note nor is it even a precursor of such an event (although I'd once again be lying if I said that I'd never contemplated that possibility in the past). This is neither a cry for help nor is it a plea for attention. In fact, I expressly do not want to discuss my feelings on this subject nor do I want to engage in any of that other weak, pathetic therapeutic bullshit. As always, I can and will handle whatever life throws at me on my own. This is merely an explanation to those of you who were concerned enough to inquire as to my current state of mind and also to those who were too polite to do the same. I sincerely appreciate that type of personal respect.

So there it is. I hope that this uncharacteristic bout of emotional honesty has not ruined your Christmas holidays and if it has I once again apologize; that was never my intent by writing this. I sincerely hope that everyone reading this has one of the best Christmases ever along with a comparably kick ass new year to boot. Regular posting will resume at some point in the very near future but I'll be honest one more time and tell you that this declaration is neither written in stone nor blood. Happy holidays to you all, and thank you for indulging my wasted intellect and shattered psyche once again. I truly appreciate it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you're around. I've got to go catch the bus, and a long day ahead, but I'll drop you a line here in the next couple days. You're definitely missed in Texas this Christmas.

Chin up, little man.

repsac3 said...

The last thing that I wanna talk about is your damned feelings... except to say, I've been there, moreorless.

Suffer through Christmas as best as you're able (I'd wish you a merry and a happy but what's the point?), and come on back to posting whene're you have something to say. You're leaving a hole in the wiseass nihilist blogesphere universe, and I'm in no mood to even try to pick up the slack.

Seriously dude... You're a far better writer than I am (as this comment no doubt shows), and I look forward to blatantly stealing shit from you again, when the time comes.

Now go hug (or kick--but preferably hug) a puppy for the holidays.

JoMala "Truth 101" Kelly said...

They say chicks are turned on by dad guys. Please confirm one of my hero images of you and tell me this is a ploy to score with chicks JBW.

Just stay away from my daughter. Lecher.

Doug"e" said...

No worries Bud. Welcome to the human condition. We were all born out of chaos and sometime in the future will return to it. We all take a dip in the sea of despair from time to time. Relax, float around, and stop trying to make sense of it all. It was never that organised to begin with.
It's OK to stop caring and not give a damn anymore. After all who do you think you are? OPRAH!

Writing is a very intensive and creative undertaking. It took some grande cojones for you to put up a posting like that. Nobody would begrudge you if you took some time off. Your readers are a patient lot and will be there when your ready to pound the keyboard again.

magpie said...

Doldrums and storms are common and passing events at sea, but the harbour is always where you left it.

Leslie Parsley said...

Welcome back, Cotter (I guess it's with a C?). You've been missed more than you know.

JBW said...

Thank you all. I appreciate it.