Lord Don't Slow Me Down

If negativity sells, I'm not buying. After a day without water because of a broken hot water heater (that happened at 2am yesterday), I got up today determined to be better. The problem is, I'm on my own.

Last night, while reading friends' blogs, I accidently typed Mr. Destructo instead of Miss Destructo into the search engine and instead of everyone's favorite internet celebrity's bright and cheery blog on social media, Amber's Miss Destructo's Deviations - http://missdestructo.com/ I got, well, the anti Miss Destructo. The Mr. is a pretty narcisstic, negative place run by an anonymous guy who fashions his identity after an African dictator. Yeah, real nice, I thought the same thing. This guy, a few months ago, after accidently finding Amber's blog, decided to type a three page hate letter about her, for no particular reason. I didn't read it. I didn't have to.

I turned on both television and radio last night and this morning. All anyone media related wants to talk about is Christina Aquilera's missinging of the national anthem before the Super Bowl. My Christina "stuff" aside for a few seconds, I mean she's perfect, but I'm trying to be fair, ok, she got nervous, missed a word or six. How many people watching at home and in the stadium know all the words to the National Anthem? How many could sing it in front of 100 large at Cowboys Stadium and a billion people watching at home? That's what I thought. Anyone remember what the media was losing it's mind over the week before 9/11 happened? Jennifer Lopez's scarf dress at an Awards show. The best column I read after the 9/11 attacks addressed that silly JLO fracas and opined that we would be better in the future. Guess that columnist was wrong.

Is it fun to be snarky and ridiculous? Uh, heck yeah, I make a habit of it. The two examples above are extremes, unfortunately, that pass for normal in the internet and other media. The first one; a guy, bored, self loathing, and possibly jealous; went out of his way to tear at someone successful. The second example is just inexcusable. It's Christina. She's amazing, we all know this. Let's move on to the relatable, meaningful part of the blog.

My wife and I try really hard with our three daughters to have a positive household. With jobs, bills, bad weather, crazy schedules, and the fact that 4 women occupy the home at one time, to say it's difficult is selling it really short. One of the things my wife is good at doing is stopping in the middle of a stressful moment when the negativity hits the fan, and saying, "what does this matter? How are we solving the problem?". I get to be married to her.

Sometimes when I read other blogs and there's bitching or venting or mean spiritedness masked as sarcasm, I stop and wonder, "is this person happy they wrote this". I am asking the same thing of the people on television talking more about Christina than Egypt or the economy.

Today's song is from one of my favorite bands, Oasis, and one of my favorite songwriters, Noel Gallagher. Lord, Don't Slow Me Down was in the running for the title of this blog a year ago. I thought My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog was more sarcastic. I'm starting to think I may have picked the wrong one. Noel penned this song after a divorce and marrying his current wife. He rarely wrote happy songs about love and life. He would later say Lord, Don't Me Down is one of his favorites because it reveals so much about him. I agree, Noel, and this song makes me an even bigger fan of yours. Play it loud. It works better that way.