Gawkers and Gapers

Gaping = staring, open-mouthed
Gawking = staring stupidly at something

Okay, I have finally figured out what is chapping my hide so.
I am deeply unsettled at the notion that I am from a country of gawking and gaping. I want to say it isn’t so, I want it to go away but alas it is not and will not and is only getting worse.

Mind you getting to the facts of the matter was a great exercise for me. I had to ask myself - why am I so bothered by all of this reality TV., Charlie Sheen mania, royal wedding hoopla, glued to professional sports stuff not limited to all of the goings on surrounding all of it e.g. the wives, the steroids, the d.v., the whole shebang.

It was as though the lights came on and I had arrived! It was all of the disgusting-despicable-get a Frickin life of your own- how do you have time for such malarkey- people are starving- how crazy can you be madness that inevitably brought me to: there is something so thoroughly unappealing about the spectators on/of other people’s lives. It begs the eternal, “what the hell are you here for”… I mean, sucking up air, space and resources in general only to be off gassed while gawking and gaping…

Of course I took it to the next level and begged the question, Do those who are really living need spectators? I mean do the non-living need to be there to validate the rest? Um, nope. Don’t care who is watching I am going to be doing me. Well then, what purpose DO spectators serve? Ah! They are consumers of all things copycat! They are the drinkers of the kool-aid, the ones who will buy whatever their favorite athlete/singer/actor etc is selling! They drive our economy! Without the shamelessness of plebeians all of the floor shows televised and otherwise ‘in the news’ on a daily basis would have no meaning.

I wonder what percentage of humanity - well of humanity that can afford non-living e.g. don’t have to scrape out an existence day in and day, aren’t inundated with war and personal safety concerns everyday, can eat slop and swill at their leisure - are gapers and gawkers? Anybody care to take a guess?

Hmmm, how to help children know how to live, to see more value in their own lived experiences than in watching someone else’s… a new mission is born!