I’ve had trouble writing piffle about my life at the moment, since everything seems so unworthy of commentary in the face of the London transit bombings.
However.
Those of you seeking distraction from these disturbing events may want to follow my suggestions as to how to find some temporary solace from grisly thoughts.
Google for “distraction”.
The second hit you get will be a link to a brief, 5-part flash-animated interactive playsite called “The ConZENtration Game”, which aims to measure your distractability and improve your level of Zen.
Try it out, but beware: you need to turn off your speakers for the first three games, but you NEED sound to be on for game #4 (my personal favorite) the Barnyard Identifier. Game number five is a cunning, pen and ink Teen-Girl-Squad-styled version of Space Invaders.
I agree that what happened in London is terrible, but I think what is really hitting most Westerners is a combination of how much London feels like “our home” (ie like NYC after 9/11 – a place we’ve been to, where our friends or family may still live or be visiting, or simply just where the majority of people look like the people in our home towns/cities). That and, not to be ignored, the intense media coverage.
And what comes with that – the identification that makes people think about how we, in the West, have been spoiled with a pretty solid illusion of “safety” – wars happen elsewhere, bombings – in general, and with any frequency – happen elsewhere, etc… and any time a terrorist attack happens, it does what it’s supposed to: it terrorizes. It is designed to chip away at that illusion of safety and, even in a localized place for a short time, replace it with what exists in the more war-torn and poorer countries of the world – fear, chaos, desperation, and over time, a devaluing of human life.
I muse on this only because, if you extend your logic, then it’s petty and self-absorbed to write about your life (or for anyone to write about their lives, or do any of a million other feel good, mundane things) in LJ while there are wars and humanitarian crises and mass suffering happening anywhere in the world – which is, thanks to the oft-suckiness of our species, constantly.
The ConZENtration game was fun.