Randomness
Nov. 20th, 2003 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarotgalI got an e-mail from Alivans when I woke up this morning. Seems they're offering discounts for the holiday season. And seems that they finally are now offering Willow-wood wands! The willow is sort of my spiritual tree (some pagans have animal guides, I've got a tree) and oohhh I'm So tempted. Of course, I wouldn't know what to do with one if I got it... I'd just sit and admire it and be a very happy fangirl, displaying it on my coffee table along with Padfoot, Moony, Scabbers, and Norbert (and two coffee table books- one about hockey and the other John William Waterhouse paintings) Man... I have a WEIRD coffee table. STILL! I'm SO damn tempted.
And then the e-mail following that in my mailbox is my daily news from CNN. Every single day I wake up to '5 killed in Iraq' or 'Explosion kills 25 in compound' or something equally horrible. Today's was 'Massive explosions hit Istanbul; 5 reported dead'. I kept going back and forth between spending a bloody $35 on a fake magic wand and the fact that such horrid things are happening. And try as I might, I can't think of myself as a very good person for spending so much time on fannish pursuits and less on donating blood and getting people to register to vote and volunteering at the elementary schools, etc. I just... gah... I wish I could do so much more... and yet I go and hide in fandoms frequently to keep my mind off all the shit that's happening.
I'm constantly reminded of the 'Literature and the Environment' class I took years ago in undergrad. And how the need for us to focus on pointless, shallow entertainment springs up at the increase of media/journalism relaying the terrible side of life in vivid images and details. It's a very American thing, at least, to involve ourselves so deeply in fetish figures and shallow pursiuts to calm us in the face of so much destruction and tragedy and immorality in important issues. *sigh* I'd like to say I'm a horrible, shallow person- and I know I AM. Problem is, that's the norm these days. At least in this country. Which depresses me even more *sigh*
And then the e-mail following that in my mailbox is my daily news from CNN. Every single day I wake up to '5 killed in Iraq' or 'Explosion kills 25 in compound' or something equally horrible. Today's was 'Massive explosions hit Istanbul; 5 reported dead'. I kept going back and forth between spending a bloody $35 on a fake magic wand and the fact that such horrid things are happening. And try as I might, I can't think of myself as a very good person for spending so much time on fannish pursuits and less on donating blood and getting people to register to vote and volunteering at the elementary schools, etc. I just... gah... I wish I could do so much more... and yet I go and hide in fandoms frequently to keep my mind off all the shit that's happening.
I'm constantly reminded of the 'Literature and the Environment' class I took years ago in undergrad. And how the need for us to focus on pointless, shallow entertainment springs up at the increase of media/journalism relaying the terrible side of life in vivid images and details. It's a very American thing, at least, to involve ourselves so deeply in fetish figures and shallow pursiuts to calm us in the face of so much destruction and tragedy and immorality in important issues. *sigh* I'd like to say I'm a horrible, shallow person- and I know I AM. Problem is, that's the norm these days. At least in this country. Which depresses me even more *sigh*
