Life Is Ridiculous

By the time one has lived for 78 years most of the things that once seemed important don't anymore. Yet William Shakespeare was only 42 when he deemed life, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." He was definitely onto something, even at that young age.

Peach astilbe, healthy.

Outside of wars and childhood cancer, it appears that society's concerns in general have become ridiculous. Proof of this can be found in the several thousand episodic TV shows currently commanding the attention of the average American. (I only interact with average Americans so can only speak to that; possibly Elon Musk does not binge-watch anything.) Aside from geniuses who invent things, we've become a nation of watchers rather than doers. Sadly, I am one of them. There's no telling  what we might have accomplished by now if there were no TV or Internet. 

I'd love to find out but I'm addicted to The Bear, currently in its third season. And before that, so many shows preceded it that filled my head with content unrelated to my real life. In fact, most "news" has nothing to do with me: Ringo Starr just turned 84. Joe Biden isn't quitting despite being senile. It hit 120 degrees in Las Vegas yesterday, an all-time high. It's almost time for the Paris Olympics, and I'm not competing in them. Russia bombed a children's hospital in Ukraine yesterday. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are having marital problems.

Here's a bit of my life: Last week my husband made me a new garden bed into which I planted nine beautiful healthy flowers. Eight of them are thriving and one, a lovely pink astilbe, is sick and appears to be dying. I've given it plant food, water it daily and talk to it several times a day, with little positive result. This makes me sad. I will probably have to pull it up soon and replace it. 

While my dying astilbe means nothing to anyone, is totally trivial and matters less than a passing wisp of cloud in the sky, it's more important to me than whether or not The Bear's fictional Carmy and Claire get back together, yet just this morning I spied four different articles on that particular subject online, each followed by heated debates among the show's fans.

Life is changing every minute: People will continue to breed, unless transgenderism becomes the norm, and some new fad will eventually replace those ubiquitous tattoos. Maybe someday it will become less ridiculous. I can dream, can't I?