The blog begins...

It was time. I was getting pissed off. Or sometimes I was so elated I could hardly stand it. I needed an outlet for some of these - dare I say - feelings I was having. Why not give my friends and family a better understanding of who I am and what I stand for? Thus, time to blog. No?

Further inspiration came from - no joke - Bette Midler. Well, through Bette Midler, more precisely. The Divine Miss M covered a song by Howard Crabtree and Mark Waldrop called "Laughing Matters" from a musical review entitled When Pigs Fly which played Off-Broadway in 1996. The lyrics of the song speak to my mindset these days, and, surprisingly, after a bit of research, I learned that the show opened on my birthday (August 1) at the Douglas Fairbanks Theater. How fitting...

Anyway - the lyrics to the song are below. Please note that all lyrics are property and copyright of their respective owners and are strictly for educational purposes only.  

"Laughing Matters" from Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly

Conceived by Howard Crabtree & Mark Waldrop. Lyrics by Mr. Waldrop.

Live at 5, and CNN keep us all abreast

Of breaking stories that can tend to make us anxious and depressed. 

Problems with no answers hang on like some chronic cough. 

And every day some brand new issue rears its head to piss you off.   

Bad guys win, optimism’s wearing thin, 

Things are spinning out of control. 

Cynicism’s all the fad, world events could make us mad as hatters. 

Almost every day, some underpinning slips away. 

These aren’t laughing matters.   

Time bombs tick. People keep on getting sick. 

And a nickel’s not worth a cent. 

Wickedness and greed abound. 

Just as peace is gaining ground it shatters. 

Hate is here to stay, and justice goes to those who pay. 

Friend, these aren’t laughing matters.  

The truth is scarier, by far, than anything that Stephen King could write.

The stories in the paper are the daily small decline and fall spelled out in black and white.

Oh, what to do...what to do...

How to take a brighter view, when your noodle's totally fried?

Human spirits need to be leavened by a little levity,

So take those blues and bounce them off the wall.

Keep your humor, please.

'Cause, don't you know, it's times like these that

Laughing matters most of all.

I'll import some of my previous Facebook posts here for the sake of having it all in one place. And I welcome comments. But please keep in mind that there's enough anger and deep-seeded negativity out in the world. Keep the hateful comments to a minimum. As it is, it'll be hard to control my own frustration, but let's work on some constructive dialogue, shall we? I'm taking the lead from the song lyrics (corny - I know). There will be some heavy, heart-felt, stuff up here - the things that aren't laughing matters.

But I hope to have some mindless, good fun as well.  Because, laughing matters most of all.