Bliss

They say that ignorance is bliss, and I’m finding out just how true it is and how seductive that bliss can be.

For reasons that have nothing to do with politics (I run a couple of different accounting departments, one as my day job, one as a volunteer on weekends – and I’m getting ready for my annual audits coming at me like a freight train) I have barely looked at Twitter, the news, or any of the insanity coming out of Washington, D.C.

Or Florida. Who can keep track?

It’s probably important to remember that, as passionately as I despise the Cheeto-In-Chief and almost every single one of the toadies, white supremacists, sycophants, and anarchists he’s surrounded himself with, and as passionately as those toadies, white supremacists, sycophants, and anarchists hate everything that I believe in, there is a significant portion of the population out there that couldn’t care less. They might even be mostly unaware there there’s a problem or an issue.

There are people out there who don’t listen to the news, ever, and haven’t read a newspaper since they were forced to in some civics class back in high school. (They probably haven’t read anything other than the back of a cereal box since high school, but that’s a discussion for another day.)

Are those people happier? Tough to say.

One of my favorite books of all time is “Flowers For Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, made into the Oscar-winning movie “Charly.” As gut-wrenching as the end of that story is, because we on the outside looking in KNOW what Charlie Gordon had and what he’s lost, Charlie doesn’t know, doesn’t care, and is perfectly happy.

Some might think that would indicate that being smart is overrated.

I would argue that being happy is overrated if that’s the price.

But it sure is desirable. Sucks to be us.