After a very rough year in 2017 and 2018, both personally and life for most of us on this Beautiful Blue Marble, it seems 2019 is shaping up to be one hell of a ride as well. With unrest in our political and social institution, as well as most of our personal spheres, we must all ask ourselves this question: Where to now?  What road do we travel, what paths do we seek and at the end of the day does it really matter. The easy answer is not the right answer, the easy path is not the right path and sometimes we are forced to travel roads, not of our choice. How we face these challenges is more important than at any time in my life.

The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America states ” We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”  The “We the people” is increasingly under attack by opposite ends of the political and social spectrum. They are very loud and passionate in the opinions and leave little to no room for compromise.

With the overwhelming reliance by many on social media for “guidance and acceptance,” we are endangering the ability to think and act on our own. The last Presidential race should have showcased that but here we are again using “social” media to show we are “right” in our biases, and small-minded theology, to separate and divided our society instead of uniting it. Instead of doing what is right, treating others the way we want to be treated, many in society have checked out on any pretense of civility in their discourse.

There also a dark side to the addiction with have with the world wide web and our increasing reliance on mobile devices: You can get so lost in it that you become unaware that we are slaves to it and not the masters of our own selves. One piece of evidence is the sidebar news feed on facebook and news stories online that is “sponsored”.  I do not trust them so I do not click on the but I will from time to time have folks quote them like the are the word and that is that. So now, we not only turn off our mind to the old adage “That there or two sides to every story”, but we are fatigue mentally and emotionally and it is easier to look at one side, not the other.

Why am I thinking about this and going down that rabbit hole? My Brother took his life at the end of August 2018. He left no will, only a note with his passcodes, a bullet to his brain, a gaping raw spot in my heart and me one fucking mess. This is what was part of my Brother decent into the abyss and I did not see it till it was too late: He had a mass amount of content and data that he had downloaded to his computer and phones, and it was mostly memes and useless shit like that. Also, he had 15p+ TB of movies and music on varies external hard drives.  After much counseling and going through his stuff the stuff that I have put in value on his pictures, varies family books and his memory.

As the title suggests we, you and I, have to take that question seriously every day. For me, I am going to take better care of my self, read more, learn to love myself, stay offline and engage people more face to face. That started today, and as Bob said in the movie What About Bob, just take Baby Steps.