Pettiness

How much of our lives do we spend occupied by petty
concerns when there are far more pressing issues that
need our attention? On a cultural level, this is probably
best exemplified by our obsession with tabloid gossip about
celebrities. We find it much easier, I believe, to try to
understand the "problems" of Paris Hilton or Brittany
Spears than to try to deal with the much more serious
subjects of war, widespread global poverty and hunger,
our broken health care system, persistent issues of racism
and sexism, the fuel crisis, a faltering economy, and other
matters ad nauseam. For many of us, such issues, we feel,
are beyond our abilities to comprehend, much less to cope
with. So we mentally and emotionally retreat to much safer
ground.

If we discuss Brittany's issues with our friends at the coffee
shop and bar (and since she is apparently dealing with a real
mental illness, I do not wish to minimize the serious nature
of her problems), well, if we say the wrong thing, it really does
not hurt anyone, does it? We feel that the pressure is off; here's
a subject we can talk about and we don't have to be accountable
for what we say. Focusing on petty and peripheral issues is a
coping mechanism.



We even see this in churches, places where one would think
that people would be comfortable confronting more substantive
subjects. But that is not necessarily the case. I once spent
twenty minutes in a meeting with Baptist deacons talking about
where one could find those little rubber thingies for the legs of
folding chairs!

Come ON, people, we are better than this. People are dying
of preventable diseases. We may be on the verge of a potentially
reversable environmental catastrophe. There is NO good
reason that anyone should be driving a car that gets 20 mpg,
except for the fact that such may be what automakers and
oil companies prefer!

But we cannot solve these problems by piddling away our
precious time talking about celebrity gossip and other petty
concerns. That is a default strategy caused by fear and also
apathy. Now I am not suggesting that we must never again
buy a People magazine. But I am stating very emphatically
that we must focus on what is truly important. Pay attention,
people! Let's all get on Ritalin, if necessary, because our
attention deficit vis a vis society's ills could wind up being a
terminal disease.