Noli Nothis Permittere Te Terere

It’s time to make a fresh start…

Recently, I took a long, hard look at everything I’ve posted to this blog. I’ve done this before, but this time I started asking myself some fairly deep questions. Questions like: What does my blog say about me? What kind of picture does it paint of me? If someone who had never met me read my blog, would they be impressed or repulsed? In answering those questions, I’ve learned a little bit about myself.

The first incarnation of this blog was all over the place. It featured all sorts of posts – everything from thought provoking commentary on social issues … some humorous posts … but, things weren’t working the way I had thought I had. For example … one week (in particular) I posted two items to my blog. The first one involved a topic I was very passionate about. The second one was me poking fun at everyone’s reaction to seeing Britney Spears’ crotch getting out of a limousine (I posted this picture of Britney holding her pet Beaver). That week, my blog went from 10-30 hits per day to 200-500 hits per day. Suddenly I found this blog on several “Up-And-Coming Blog Lists” and one day I was the “fastest growing blog on WordPress”. My thought provoking post got almost no hits. All my new viewers wanted to see Britney Spears’ Beaver. URGH!

Now, I’ve been writing (and blogging) long enough to know that when I write about something I am passionate about – not everyone out there is going to feel the same way. That didn’t bother me. But, it did get me thinking about trying something new.

Around this same time, I had a little personal problem I was trying to deal with. (Ok, it wasn’t so “little”.) Anyway… mostly because of that problem, I stopped posting my personal thoughts on pretty much everything. I was afraid that anything and everything I posted would just add fuel to that fire. I still “wrote” about things I was passionate about – but (1) nothing that effected me directly; and (2) for the most part, I was blogging about other people’s thoughts.

“Noli Nothis Permittere Te Terere” is not just the title of my blog … it’s also become my motto. It translates from the Latin to “Don’t let the Bastards get you down”. Words I haven’t been living by for awhile now.

And now … it’s time for me to reclaim this … and I am fairly confident doing this will help me get back into being the kind of person I really want to be.

Why now? What brought this on?

A few things really.

First off, I’ve been making some personal changes in my life … trying to eliminate the things in my life that aren’t good for me physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually … like, I’m trying to stop smoking. I’m trying to eat better and exercise more… I’m trying to separate myself from the toxic people in my life … just to name a few.

The other thing reason … well, you can blame those wacky “girls” on The View for this one. They were discussing the recent antics of a certain popular blogger who had gotten into a fight with the manager of a certain popular music band and used Twitter to ask someone to call the police for him. Personally – that whole thing made me sick. (What the blogger dude did, not My Girls.)

Someone … (I think it was Whoopi) … raised the issue that if the blogger had only written nice things about celebrities, he wouldn’t be as popular today as he is. I agreed with her at first, until I really started thinking about it. Sure … maybe people will be more likely to pick up a magazine if it features something about how some celebrity is being a total bitch, and less likely to pick it up if that same celebrity has done something rewarding. My question is … What does that say about us, about our society, if that’s the way it is now?

What does that say about me if I sit here and say nothing about it?

See … I think the stories about celebrities doing good things are more important than those other ones. And, the thing is … they stick with us a lot longer. Britney Spears isn’t going to go down in history as “that girl who slid out of a limo wearing a mini-skirt and no underwear” … Give that enough time and people will eventually forget it even happened in the first place.

On the other hand … when a celebrity does something good … no matter how small or large that may be … they find their way into our hearts and I think everyone comes away a little better for it. And then something funny happens … they stop being just Celebrities … and start becoming our heroes.

I think the world needs more heroes.

The more we talk about celebrities making fools of themselves or doing things that make them look bad, the more we encourage that kind of behavior … and the more we make it, dare I say, acceptable …? Have we got to the point where all a celebrity has to do to be on the news (or to be blogged about) is get drunk and puke all over the sidewalk?

My advise to celebrities … if you’re needing a bit of publicity … why not try doing something that is rewarding. Why not use your celebrity status to leave some positive energy out there in the world. Go visit sick kids in the hospital … or help some charity raise money … Why not do something … anything … to help yourself go down in history as being someone people can look up to, rather than just being that celebrity who pooped his or her pants at Taco Bell.

To me … that’s what “don’t let the bastards get you down” is all about … There’s a lot of stuff happening in the world that … let’s face it … if we continue to focus on it, it’s only going to get worse.

So … maybe it’s time to start looking for light at the end of the tunnel?