Don't Forget To Flush

I started this blog as a spontaneous reaction to reading the blog recently started by one of my wife’s friends. Having always believed that spontaneity has its time and place, I decided this was the time and place for me to be spontaneous. Hair on the Soap was up and running less than an hour later. Keeping the Hair on the Soap, however, is a much bigger challenge than starting it.

I’ve asked myself why I’m doing this. I think I need to do it; I need the therapy. I’ve always heard that writing is good therapy, but I’ve never done anything like a journal in order to get “stuff” out. I have “stuff” in me, and it’s the kind of “stuff” that needs to get out of me. As I get older I find myself less able to suffer fools, and as I get older I find that there’s been a veritable population explosion in fools. I swear; they’re everywhere! I get pissed off about someone or something – usually in the realms of politics or religion – on a regular basis and, well, I need to relieve myself. If you'll pardon the indelicate analogy (or is it a metaphor or simile?), this makes a blog similar to a toilet. And, as we try to teach our three-year olds, the important step in using that household item is to remember to flush – in other words, don’t just “get it out,” but send it on down the line. Come to think of it, that’s down the same line traveled by the hair that gets washed off the soap.

I also think that I have some things that I want to say, without regard to therapeutic need. I have opinions and assessments about the world around me and I have enough ego to think that some of these tidbits are worth expressing. They’re just another set of opinions, of course; but, they’re mine and I love them dearly.

On occasion, I’ve been accused a being a better talker than a listener. While I regard myself as a decent listener, I admit that sometimes listening is what I do while I’m thinking about what to say next. So, on the days when I don’t make a blog entry – that’s when I’m listening, trying to figure out which opinion is traveling down the birth canal and trying to crown. Having now made my second analogy/metaphor/simile to some function that involves getting things out of the body, I think it’s time for me to return to listening. But, these two bodily references do serve a point – sometimes what comes out of us is a wonderful living thing, a child to be loved, nurtured and raised to maturity. Other times, it’s just “stuff” that needs to be flushed and sent off to some treatment facility.

What I need right now is a good Pat Robertson sound bite. That’s some "stuff" worth flushing.