There are many, many of you out there who will disagree with this, but I am now of the firm belief that it is time for the world to just be quiet. This is not some revelation, but I think it finally hit me when I accidentally, when waking up the other morning, hit the mute button on my television s remote control gadget and was suddenly assaulted by someone on the early-morning news talking 90 miles an hour about nothing. Just jabbering away about some car wreck or something with all sorts of special news room sound effects. Why do people talk so much? And most of the time it s about something that s already happened and there s nothing that can be done to change it. Or it s all the American government mouthpieces talking 24 hours a day, trying to convince someone somewhere that we need to attack other countries who might at some point in the future do something that we don t like and that they should live exactly the way we do, trying to force upon them our culture, which they simply don t want. If the warmongers out there have to talk this much to convince us that war is necessary, it obviously is not. I, for one, am sick of hearing about it. And look at all the talk radio shows. This is what we want other countries to do? Talk radio is proof that the free speech part of the constitution needs to be amended. On a brighter note, I had two Jehovah s Witnesses come to my door the other morning. They were as sweet as they could be and did not try to talk me into anything. I explained to them that I fell somewhere between a Buddhist and a Sufi, because we understand that everything in life happens for a reason, and that everything cannot be explained, and that just sitting in silence and not trying to change the world, but accept it as it is, makes one very comfortable. Where there is no resistance, there is no conflict. And there is no reason to talk about everything. They were very gracious and just left with me some literature about child prostitution. My favorites are the people who sell advertising space. I am in the advertising business. The company for which I work creates, among other things, ads for clients and then we place those ads in various publications and on television and the radio. They are not all like this, but some advertising sales people cannot understand it when you tell them you are not going to advertise in their publication. That s when the talking starts. Some of them feel compelled for some reason to offer me their dissertation on how and why advertising works. Here s a special report: That is what I do for a living and I think I already know that. Please don t talk to me about it. If any of you out there feel guilty about just sitting in a chair and doing nothing for a while every day, think again. It s one of the best things you can possibly do for yourself. Just be quiet. Try it out. But don t talk about it afterwards. And now I guess I d better stop being guilty of the very thing I m complaining about and shut up and get on with what s going on around town this week. Tonight, there s an opening reception at Germantown Performing Arts Centre for an exhibit by the Atelier Artists. Down in Tunica, country music legend Merle Haggard is at the Horseshoe Casino. And here at home, Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards are at Elvis Presley s Memphis; Wetbelly is at the Flying Saucer; and Herman Green is cooking up jazz at CafÇ Zanzibar.
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