Yes, it has been a gap. It would be easy to say that I’ve been just too busy, and I have…except that never stopped me before. There is so much thought swimming in my psyche these days that I’ve completely lost my ability to articulate anything cogent at all. Wild gesticulating and Cro-Magnon growls seem to be my only means of expression. Occasionally I blurt out “OH COME ON” but that’s the extent of it. It appears that the more I have to say the less prolific my writing is. Personally? I blame reality TV. In one of my dark nights of the soul, I visited those channels who give us a voyeur’s view into the life of dance moms, jersey girls, Kardashians, people who talk to the dead, lunatic housewives, pawn shops, hoarders, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera and I could feel myself growing more stupid by the minute. I have nightmares of intelligence out there in the universe receiving all this kind of programming and tracking us for extinction as a planet that has halted evolution and is spiraling into a de-evolutionary free fall. What if in that fate-filled moment of singular communication with an alien intelligence out in the universe it only consists of pictures of those “Wall-Mart people” floating around the internet? What will they think of us Homo sapiens? Will Botox and extreme teeth whitening create such a crazy archetype that we can never get out from under it? We need to stop watching crazy so they stop making the rest of us look so bad. I know, I know, there are times when, like an accident, we just can’t help ourselves. But we have to go cold turkey. We have to start up-loading more viral videos that don’t have people figuring out how many miles we travel in an hour going 80 miles per hour, flash mobs or silly cats doing tricks. We need to start listening to Van Cliburn play and read Jane Austen and watch the Independent Film channel. I know I’m not perfect…I get my news from John Stewart and Steven Colbert because I can’t stand watching it anywhere else. Please, let’s think about this…as we enter a new age, don’t we want to put our best foot forward and show the other intelligent beings out in the universe that we are worthy enough to participate in their United Intergalactic Nations? I want them to like us and not exterminate our planet. But if they meet Snooki before the rest of us what do you think will happen? Silence is not an option. I know that now. Regardless of how deep and cavernous cyber space has become…I will continue with my voice, crying out into the universe with multisyllabic words and complete sentences.
