Stan English: All you need is a reset

By STAN ENGLISH

I’ve been listening to my “pundits” lately and they haven’t disappointed in delivering “the news I can use”—depressing, yes; wrong, never; dour, always; accessible, 24/7. It’s awesome. At the heart of it is Tucker Carlson and I like his spin better than anyone else’s.

Carlson’s ability to get me bummed out faster than all others is without parallel. Whether it’s Brett Weinstein, Mike Benz, Vladimir Putin, and countless others, the topics paint a fairly sinister picture that “there’s trouble brewing on the horizon.” The question to this simple guy is: what to do with all this terrible information? Accept it, resist it, join it, what? 

A quick drill down on my options: Accept it means to allow whatever to happen no matter the consequences. Resist it means to apply pressure in an opposing direction to inhibit forward movement of the thing one wants stopped, in other words, “fight”. Join it means–similar to acceptance but worse—to choose to go in the direction that Tucker would probably say is bad. 

When confronted with “the news I can use” I do the above math and don’t like any of the alternative solutions. They all seem to present a lose-lose. There has been one approach lately, however, that has gained favor with me that is actually pretty simple when “the end of Democracy as I know it“ looms near.

Change the channel and listen to music. 

Easy, quick and painless, and there’s no down side. Who’d a thunk it, the power of positive ignorance just might save us all from ourselves. Hell, I feel better already just thinking about it. Make your music selection count. So, turn off the news and go do something.

My something recently was to attend the Fur Rendezvous melodrama put on by the Alaska Sound Celebration. All deep thinkers and even simple guys like me need a reset from this complicated world. Great music, a great story, and fantastic acting was all it took to decompress from all my life stresses. Don’t tell anyone but I had a blast also. 

Downtown Anchorage after a fair amount of snow isn’t one of the easiest of places to walk around in. Throw in Fur Rondy barricades, plastic fencing, red cones and you quickly discover that it’s hard to drive around in too. However, if you can power your way to 49^th State Brewing on 3^rd Avenue, you’re in for a treat. A Theater (the Chinese haven’t managed to tear this one down yet), music, and popcorn – lots and lots of popcorn; in your hair, in your clothes and in places where popcorn should never be. 

I’m a dude that likes doing manly things. Attending the theater doesn’t exactly come to the forefront of my psyche when describing what makes me tick. For two hours last weekend, however, I laughed hard, threw popcorn at the “villain” and was stunned at how phenomenal the ladies were who performed in the choir that came with the production. 

The only thing that would have pushed last Saturday night into a “perfect evening” would have been the inclusion of monster trucks or something. Suffice to say, I didn’t think about politics, war, the border, nothing – just the ballistics of popped popcorn, how to reach the stage with it, maybe get lucky and hit the villain, and how much fun I had. A big thanks to my wife and kid for making me go.

An even bigger thanks to the Rondy organizers for playing their part(s) putting stuff like this on. And of course, the cast and crew of the Alaska Sound Celebration, volunteers and everyone else involved; you hit a home run this year! Perhaps the best for last; thanks to Anchorage for making me believe that maybe our best days aren’t behind us as my pundits would make me believe. 

Enough of this fluff, I’m ready for some more Tucker Carlson. Bring it!

Stan English, a multi-generational Alaskan, is on the board of Alaska Gold Communications, parent company of Must Read Alaska.