U is for Usurp

My train of thought has been hijacked by Barnum & Bailey.  My focus has been disrupted by all manner of clowning, daredevil motorcycle jumps through flaming hoops, lion taming and, of course, elephants performing tricks for peanuts.  These hijackers have dammed up my stream of consciousness and forced me to wade through a lake of idiocy and horror in my feeble attempt to free myself from their evil master plan of twisted sleight of hand.  In other words, I’ve been distracted by the media and it’s endless stream of everything useless and shocking.

I thought I was safe.  I stopped watching the evening news ages ago because my psyche can only bear a finite amount of the ravages of war, famine, pestilence, and mindless violence and cruelty.  And I try (sometimes successfully) to stay out of political and religious discussions because I truly believe everyone is unique and entitled to their opinions and viewpoints,  just as I am entitled to my own.  I skim through the daily newspaper looking for possible business opportunities without allowing my wandering eye to peruse the editorials because I know for a fact what path that will lead me down and it’s not pretty.

But while waiting for the antihistamines to do their job and calm my body’s reaction to an invading virus so that I could get some sleep, my traitorous hand channel-surfed past programming whose subject matter defied belief and led my mind to mutiny in order to verify  that, yes indeed, there is a Barbie channel.  And Punkin Chunkin.  And Sarah Palin’s Alaska.  I even briefly toyed with the notion of seeing what could possibly compel people to intentionally tune in to this kind of programming.  I am, after all, a curious individual.

Luckily, I didn’t damage my eyes or any brain cells stubbornly hanging on after my college days because the sedative effects of my cold medicine chose to arrive in the nick of time to provide me safe passage to dreamland aboard the Clue Train.  Don’t let yourself get mired in the gunk like I almost did.  Come on and join me on the Clue Train.  I hear there’s chocolate in the dining car.