Shrink Rap with Dr. Laurie Johnson, LPC
What grabs your attention these days?
Or maybe, you're glued to Social Media, watching the NASDAQ of your Social Standing rise and fall? Beware having or stating opinions, because groups are on stand-by to label you a BP (Bad Person) an agitator or POTB (Part of the Problem.)
They have clear boxes to cage you in, once they've determined that you don't 110% agree with them or see the world through their lens or you smell funny. Okay, maybe not smell funny.
Just beware of Attitude Monitors because they perch everywhere. They don't have time to check facts or get background, because there are other people to harass as Internet Hall Monitors and Self-Appointed Determinizers of whether your soul is or is not corrupt and how enlightened is your agreement with the--- I mean, your thinking. Bottom line, the rush of a Twitter war and the combat (aka debate) of opponents is exhilarating, as spectator or combatant. It is addictive.
Speaking of addictions, welcome to the NBT addiction~ PokemonGo.
Who could blame you? Escape to childhood. Who wouldn't seek that bunker with the world falling apart? A reprise of days when you had devoted magical creatures who could prove you to be the best trainer on earth! Pikachu, I choose YOUUU!
I don't play, because I would be the person who walks right smack onto a semi on 1-75 because I'm lost in the game. It is addictive. (I mean… I hear that it is addictive.) Okay, I confess. I've played. Thankfully I am wretched at it, so I still have my life within reach. Did you hear about the release of new hoards of Pokemon scheduled to come out every six months? Oy.
I don't play, because I would be the person who walks right smack onto a semi on 1-75 because I'm lost in the game. It is addictive. (I mean… I hear that it is addictive.) Okay, I confess. I've played. Thankfully I am wretched at it, so I still have my life within reach. Did you hear about the release of new hoards of Pokemon scheduled to come out every six months? Oy.
Or, maybe you are glued to BLOGS. i have 5 tabs open of must reads at the moment. After all, we must blog, speak, rant, rave, sound off, make noise, prove something by our refusal to be silent. Even if silence might allow a few heads to cool and prevail. Address. Address by attack but pretend only to have righteous indignation and not self righteousness.
Confront people. That's good for a lot more adrenaline than confronting problems. Have you seen how many likes and shares you can get with a really snarky hit on a person? I mean--on their position or ideology. Nobody would hit below the belt with the assault weapon of a murmured accusation, shady affiliation, indication of marital strife or dirty record. Nah brah.
Or, maybe mudslinging and polls don't ring your bells. Instead, you're glued to Reality TV?
Come on--there is no dearth of choices there! You can pick from among a myriad of circuses to either mirror your own dilemmas or make your dilemmas seem tame by comparison. Who cares if they are scripted or not? They have a gravitational pull like no current in the world. Will she find love? Will he eat the whiskey bottle? Will he marry the neighbor's potbelly pig? Will she poison her archenemy Dance Mom? Endless are the opportunities to take your eyes and brain away from the worries of a sane world. Or from a world gone insane. Just fix them on the antics of some millenials or cougars willing to be waxed on camera. It is sickly addictive.
Something not new, is the likelihood of being glued to the Scales. Let's face it. When you can control nothing in the world, it is tempting to control what's above your feet. You can obsess about your looks, weight, BMI or sex appeal, right?
(Chris Madden cartoon)
After all--if we make the effort, we're promised a 5 in One Fix! All for the low, low price of fixating on your body, you can lose yourself in Dieting, Purging, Comparing yourself with fatty's, Guessing who is anorexic (or more anorexic than you) and Tripping out because you gained weight, lost BMI points, saw a liver spot, or ate a piece of that @#$% cheesecake your #$@% coworker brought to the office.
Or, maybe, you're glued to the GAME. Fill in the name of any game, from basketball to the NYSE to the race to the White House. It is easy to hide or get lost in the race for numbers,
Pokemon, gems, dollars, and supremacy.
If you want, you can add the Dow, futures or the PGE ~ the Political Gladiator Extravaganza otherwise known as the presidential election. Of course, that may seem an oxymoron. Let's just say, the Race to the White House.
Or, maybe you're glued to your Kids? That can offer a tunnel of dreams or nightmares. On the dream side, there is no limit to the photos you can post of your lovely kids and fam photos.
On the nightmare side, you stay awake at night terrified about whether Sal's second grade ERB scores predict acceptance at Football University or GreekisLife University? Anxious that Alex' only taken 8 APs, or that your college kid can't reconcile a checkbook? Maybe you're bothered that he or she disagrees that 6 years is a tad long for a four year degree? As a parent of four, I'm well aware that the vortex of fear that parenting can create, feels inescapable. It is likely to fuel all the addictions.
Or like me, is the siren of "stuff" losing its call? Are you tired of the 134th Bachelor? Jaded about whether the South has Charm or if snake handlers really do prefer Pepsi? Or whether the leak was intentional or a great publicity stunt?
Is riding the Dow leaving you saddle sore, with more Pepto Bismal in your veins than blood? Has calorie counting and Ripstix left you weary? Has the fact that athletes make more money than many nations combined, for handling leather balls and having big balls when it comes to breaking laws and raping girls taken a tad of sparkle out of sports for you?
Are you resigned that Hil and Don are going into a dogfight that will most likely hurt everybody, leaving Americans more divided, disgusted and disillusioned? Are you secretly wishing for a hero to stride out of the smoke and mirrors and mashup of noise, media, Hollywood and hot trends section of "What's New?" Somebody who has their #$%@ together? Someone who is neither a hater or a politician or a kiss up? (Oxymoron- sorry.) Maybe you're ready for what that British Nanny brought as sanity to parents, you're hoping might arrive for adults? Me, too. Help.
Are you resigned that Hil and Don are going into a dogfight that will most likely hurt everybody, leaving Americans more divided, disgusted and disillusioned? Are you secretly wishing for a hero to stride out of the smoke and mirrors and mashup of noise, media, Hollywood and hot trends section of "What's New?" Somebody who has their #$%@ together? Someone who is neither a hater or a politician or a kiss up? (Oxymoron- sorry.) Maybe you're ready for what that British Nanny brought as sanity to parents, you're hoping might arrive for adults? Me, too. Help.
The hero already came onto the scene, but not as we'd imagine he or she would today with savvy, showmanship and PAC'd to the hilt. The hero I'm talking about, came as the absolute anti-Hero if you were a bookie making the odds for his success--heck--for even his survival. The hero I'm referring to, had a radical message that agitated officials and infuriated authorities. The hero had a confounding personality--one no agent or publicist would clamor to claim. Too blunt. Too soft. Too tolerant. Too unpolitical.
Too engaged in the moment and perpetually inclined to engage with nobodies. Too unimpressed with Who's Who. Too rogue. Too gentle. Too unpinnable. Too messy a backstory. Too out of touch (could it be, unconcerned?) with How Things Are and How It's Done Around Here. A handler's nightmare. Legal's bad dream come true.
Add to all those issues, the hero traveled with a really sloppy entourage. One known as a Son of Thunder who was a bit blade happy. A treasurer with fiduciary "issues." Ladies of the Night. Unwed mother. A teenager. Suffice it to say--nobody with papers or pedigree to get the hero onto the A List, into special chambers or even into a Country Club. We're talking… someone who would be rejected by both the Democrats and Republicans! One who wouldn't cater to the haves, the wannabes, the powers-that-be, or insiders. Unless of course, they were sincerely interested. Given that regard, he eagerly fielded their questions and challenged them to use their power, platform and bling for good. You can read about it.
This hero was someone who asked the same hard, hard stuff of EVERYBODY, regardless of nationality, gender, skin color, bank account, pedigree, gang membership, rap sheet, party line or party hardy lifestyle. He had one law. Love. One boss, God. One aim ~ for us to look after one another. For us to open eyes, heart, mind, home, resources, heritage, and soul to one another. This hero knows every feeling, fear, heartbreak and anxiety you know. He knows. He feels your pain. Your shame. Your fury. He's acquainted with sorrow.
He asks us to rechannel rage into compassionate service and sincere reform. For us to grab each other out of horrifying poverty, trafficking, addiction, despair, domestic violence, indignity, oppression or brutality. To not look the other way. To not assign things as Your Problem. To not assign ourselves as Jr. Saviors because we pitch in to help right wrongs. To listen, learn and look for what must be comprehended. To refuse violence as a means of combat, until every imaginable resource has been utilized to neutralize people or forces bent on the destruction of humanity.
This hero is real and has a name. He's not Atticus. He's not Mr. Rogers. He's not Mandella. He was a real, historical guy. He continues to have a following.
May those of us who follow Him, get our eyes glued on Him. That doesn't mean walking around with a Bible duck taped to our heads. But it does mean we set our compass to His True North and not to the trend of the week or the celebrity buzz or the follies of snapchat and TNBT.
You may wonder, what does it matter? My life is a speck in a world of chaos. Wrong. It does matter if we look above the crowd, to take our cue from this Hero, instead of from leaders promising us the world? Is that also preferable to taking our marching orders from those who want to rule this world? Yes. I think it does. So, what will be evidence that followship to this Hero increases? Fellowship will increase. Why? Because, we'll check the ego that would otherwise scorch folks who look or act different than us. On Twitter or on the sidewalk. We'll check our zeal so that it does not polarize or stake claims on having compassion. And, too often, of having the credentials to decide who else does or does not have compassion. We'll hold space for each other. We'll seek peace with each other (despite the gargantuan chasm of ignorance and misunderstanding and misperceptions we MUST correct.)
We'll give each other the benefit of the doubt. We'll respect each other's prerogative to doubt or distrust. We'll invite questions. We'll respectfully question answers. We'll admit that we don't have all the answers and maybe not the most important ones!
We'll come together. I like that word. Today, I have a dream much like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. It is to come to the aid of the America that he saw. To come to her aid, because she is in trouble. From within and from without. From heights of power and low places of horrible suffering. America needs us. She needs us to get her out of trouble and trauma and fury and pain. America needs us to get her. To understand the beautiful diversity of her people. To keep moving forward the civil rights movement until a generation learns of it with incredulity. To keep moving forward the human rights movement, until being human doesn't hurt just because you are a vulnerable child, or a female or male, gay, or have an accent or particular skin tone. America needs us to get her. You know what that spells? America needs us ToGetHer. Together. I'm in. Will you be in, too? Here's my candidate to put in charge...
Hugs in print, Dr.J
Dr. Laurie Johnson, LPC
www.drlauriejohnson.com
On TalkRadio WLAQ Saturdays 9-9:30 am EST
www.drlauriejohnson.com
On TalkRadio WLAQ Saturdays 9-9:30 am EST
