What the Fuck America?

I'm tired. In two days I'll be 38 years old. The average life expectancy of an American man is 76 years. This means that I'm middle aged now. I have lived half of my life already. If I'm lucky, and it will take some luck with the way I've lived the first half of my life, I've got 38 more years to spend wandering around Planet Earth. Half of my life is over, and I'm tired.

I'm tired of fighting all the time. I'm tired of politics. I'm tired of fighting with people that I care about because they have different beliefs than I do. Don't jump too quick on the, "yeah Dan, stop fighting already," wagon, because you've been fighting with me too. Most of us are guilty of this, and I'm tired of it, and I don't know how to make it stop.

I've visited Times Square in New York City a couple of different times in the first half of my life. I hope to see it again in the last half. New York is a wonderful city, full of life, and activity, and human beings. I don't want to live there, but I have loved visiting.

On one particular visit to Times Square, I walked down a full city block, and started counting. To the best of my knowledge, which is admittedly very little in this subject area, I counted seven different languages being spoken. Seven different languages. Seven different cultures. You know what that is? That's America. At least that's what America is supposed to be. The great country that everyone wants to visit, everyone wants to live in. The great melting pot.

But lets face it. That's not what America is. At least not anymore. You know what America is? It's a country of arrogant, intolerant people, myself included.

One of the great joys of my life, has been meeting people that are different. If you are different than me in skin color, in cultural background, in sexual identity, in fashion tastes, in any way really, I'm fascinated by you. I want to know you. I want to know what life is like for you. I want to hear of your experiences. You've traveled to Europe? Please, let me buy you coffee and listen to your tales. You've taught English in China? I want to know what it was like. Were you afraid? How did you adjust? What are their grocery stores like?

That's the thing that's supposed to make America great. We're supposed to be a united people relishing in our freedom, even though we come from very diverse places in life. Instead, we judge people by their political beliefs, and we fight with them on social media.

I'm tired, and I'm done.

There has to be a line drawn somewhere, and this is where I'm drawing it for me. I refuse to live the last half of my life fighting with you because you vote republican. Neither will I tolerate your disdain for how I vote. I'm just not going to do it anymore. No more negativity. I fight too many internal battles to exert any more energy worrying about whether you support an NFL quarterback sitting during the national anthem. Oh, you think I'm a traitor because I do? That's fine. Go share it with someone else, because I don't care. I don't even want to hear about it. And if that's what you're going to use as a metric for keeping me as a friend, then I'm sorry that you are so intolerant. It's been nice knowing you.

You might think I'm being selfish here. Perhaps you're right. There is a part of me that truly wants to leave a better world for my children to live in, but I'm not going to accomplish that by arguing on Facebook. You're not going to either, but you're welcome to spend your energy however you wish.

I told myself several years ago that my number one priority in life was to be happy. I lose sight of that sometimes. No more. That's it. That's my one goal in life; to live happily. I'm just a man that really enjoys staying home in my nice double wide, talking to my cats, being near my wife, knowing that our children are ok, and not in any immediate danger. I like watching movies, and reading books, and writing poetry, and eating good food. I like road trips, and going on adventures. I like good music, and meeting interesting people. I like learning things about new places, and about cultures that I've never experienced. I like art, and mostly I like the people that make it. These are the things that make me happy, and I'm hell bent on spending the last half of my life doing them.

You're welcome to hang around, and enjoy the last half of my life with me. But don't bring any negativity with you. I've only got 38 years left, if I'm lucky, and I don't have any time to waste worrying about who you're voting for.