#IWSG: Taking the World Very Seriously

~ J.S. Pailly

Hello, friends!  Welcome to this month’s meeting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.  If you’re an insecure writer, then this is the support group for you!  Click here to learn more.

Once upon a time, a woman who takes the world very seriously told me that I ought to take the world very seriously too.  If I were to follow the example this woman set, then it seems that “taking the world very seriously” means sitting on the couch all day getting angry about whatever they’re saying on the news.

I’d rather not live like that, so instead I’m going to keep living my life “frivolously.”  For me, that means driving out to weird places in the middle of the night so I can see the stars.  It means reading lots of books about space, and watching lots of movies set in space, and sometimes it means annoying my friends with an endless stream of space facts.

For me, living frivolously also means going out on adventures: seeing strange new sights, eating strange new foods, and talking to strange new people.  Sometimes these strange new experiences turn out to be disasters.  Sometimes they don’t, and even the disasters can turn into fun stories later.

And speaking of stories, that brings me to the most important thing.  My allegedly frivolous lifestyle means that I am going to keep writing, writing, writing.  And I’m going to keep drawing as well.

Because the stuff they say on the news is not totally wrong.  There’s an awful lot of ugliness in the world right now.  But the correct response to all that ugliness is not, in my opinion, to sit there dwelling about it or yelling about it.  The correct response to ugliness is to make something beautiful.

It doesn’t matter what you make, specifically.  A poem or song.  A story.  A drawing or painting or sculpture.  It could even be a blog post.  Like I said, it doesn’t matter what it is, specifically, just so long as it’s beautiful.

Maybe all of that is frivolous.  So be it.  I’ll keep living my life frivolously.  How about you?

20 thoughts on “#IWSG: Taking the World Very Seriously”

  2. Fight the world’s ugliness with the beauty we create! That’s what I believe as well. I try to avoid watching the news as much as possible; it’s nearly all bad news. I limit myself to a “glance” at it just enough to be sufficiently informed but I don’t constantly watch it and dwell on the bad; doing so is not healthy.

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    1. Yeah, staying informed is one thing. CNN does a “five things to know today” article every day. That’s usually enough for me. Too much more, and I start to run out of headspace for my own problems and priorities.

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  3. My approach to the news these days is to take it in only electronically, and then only from relatively neutral sources. TV and partisan sources are designed to piss you off so you keep watching or clicking, and I prefer to just not get on that train.

    There’s a lot to be said for finding ways to enjoy life in whichever manner gives you satisfaction, and not getting upset about the ways others choose to do it.

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    1. As you may have guessed, the woman I referenced watches one of those partisan news sources. It’s becoming very frustrating trying to talk with her. It’s also a sad thing to see the effect all that “news” is having on her.

      It’s worthwhile to stay informed about what’s going on in the world. But you can’t let that eat up all your time and energy.

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      1. I have a number of relatives and acquaintances who do the same thing she does. They’re so immersed in whatever the controversies of the moment are in those news sources. It’s frequently all they want to talk about. A couple of years ago, one of them asked me what I thought about “sanctuary cities”, which was a term I hadn’t even heard of before then.

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      2. The most recent incident for me was something about the California recall election, which… I don’t live in California. I don’t live anywhere near California. I don’t have an opinion about that.

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  4. Your friend isn’t alone.

    The saddest thing about the news is that it’s more about the newscasters than world events. Everyone wants to be a star (and not the good kind). They land up manipulating us into fearmongers, emotional wrecks and nut-jobs.

    I’d rather be frivolous like you. The rest of the world can keep their anti-anxiety meds, or antidepressants, up-to-date. ;-p

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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  8. I loved your living frivolously post, JS. It has been a challenging time for sure. I’m too exhausted by everything to get angry at the news. It just breaks my heart that so many people are still suffering and dying from Covid. Terry and I are heading out very soon for a frivolous week in Vegas, with lots of masks and sanitizer. Happy writing!

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