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You've heard of writer's block? I think I may have writer's flood. While reviewing potential writing topics for BlogHer this week, something I generally start considering within 24 hours of publishing my weekly BlogHer post, I had lots of ideas, but soon realized that I did not want to do the kind of research I feel a BlogHer post deserves, didn't feel like figuring out the back story so I could write the front story.
Some of this sense of being overwhelmed has to do with last week's family event. My son graduated from high school. I was happy, but I was also not in the mood to plan anything or figure out the logistics of house guests.
But a lot of what I'm feeling is what we all feel sometimes--that general sense of life spinning out of control and beyond our reach. Our minds feel suddenly pulverized by too many new computer applications, social media networks, family obligations, ex-lover/ex-spouse, divorce-recovery drama, or always-and-forever spouse needs, the pets, the car note, screaming children, clutter, and dust bunnies. Welcome to the centrifuge where the only thing split is your brain.
So it kept coming back to me that what overwhelms me, the topics I don't wish to write at the moment, may be the story itself.
- I'm too overwhelmed by the raging crime and rising deaths of school-age children in Chicago, Ill. I've written about it before at WSATA, and I've also written at The Urban Mother's Book of Prayers about the young dying or killing in my own city, New Orleans. The tragedies bum me out and make me cry. But it's okay that I don't want to write about violence and grief again this week. Someone at Phenomenal Women on Facebook saw my post and started talking about solutions. Plus, Kim Crouch in African-American Moms at Twittermoms, with absolutely no help from me, broached the topic. Murder and mayhem is covered. If I want to write more about darkness, unfortunately there's always more to write.
- I'm too overwhelmed to blog that other people feel overwhelmed by Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and fill-in-the-blank with some other social media monster. And I'm also too through with copyright infringement nonsense from AP to write about how it doesn't want me or you to link to its story on the matter. But that's okay. Professor Kim at BlogHer long ago covered AP's concerns, and if anyone is confused about copyright and plagiarism, that topic will be hammered again online as everyone dissects Maureen Dowd's faux pas.
On social media overload, I've touched on the twitterversy before as well, mentioning people who complain about too many celebrities on Twitter or posting what Beyonce said about Solange's addiction to Twitter, if you care. But if you're really fed up with Twitter, blogger Kristen Nicole tells you "5 Ways to Stop Using Twitter."
- Also, I'm struggling to not become a menopausal, irrelevant woman who sometimes can't remember how to spell, and so I'm not surprised that hordes of people smoking electronic cigarettes have crept upon me unawares. I heard about E-cigarettes for the first time on a local news broadcast Monday night only to hear my son say he sees people using them everywhere. Have I been asleep?
Well, I'm too overwhelmed to write about E-cigarettes and the potential war building with the FDA over possible health issues as well as the possibility this new gadget may encourage more children to smoke. But that's o.k. Cindy Casares at Guanabee's tackled the topic, sharing that she didn't know about them either until she saw Perez Hilton puffing on a strange thing at SXSW.
- I'm too overwhelmed to discuss Obama's Notre Dame visit. I've said what I have to say, and I've moved on. Neither do I care to debate torture and Obama's flip-flop on the photos and why it doesn't bother me. But that's o.k. People all over the Net are talking about this topic, both anti-release and pro-release. With all the flipping around of the people flipping out about the flip-flop, I'm done.
- And speaking of transparency issues, I'm sick to death of hearing about our local public records and email mess, featuring the mayor, a Civil Rights attorney, the media, and an insane councilwoman or two, but
