Out of Sorts

I can't say exactly why but I have felt a little out of sorts lately. I think I have been thinking too much. Life is so much easier if you can go through it without evaluating things too closely, don't you think? One of my skills in life is generally not getting too worked up about things (and it is a skill, believe me...)

For some reason though, I have lately found myself in a state of mild frustration about things that I have absolutely no control over - which is even worse than getting frustrated about things that you do have control over. A sample of things that annoy me lately include mammoth companies saying they are broke but wasting huge amounts of money. Some examples of this include Bank of America changing out all of their signage to that awful red color when the silver was just fine and our local Tollway association raising rates by 33% when they have spent over $14 million dollars on landscaping improvements in the last few years with new landscape projects being planned. Do you have any idea how much new signage costs? The bank could have easily kept 100s of people if not more in their jobs rather that opting for their new (ugly) eye-catching signage. And the landscaping? It is nice but is it really the best use of funds right now?

Oh, what else? How about politics? I am completely disgusted with politics at the moment. I feel strongly that something needs to be done about healthcare and the environment and I can see the opinions of both parties though I lean more toward the democrat side. I just wish that there could be a reasonable, intelligent conversation between the two sides about these unbelievably important things. I am outraged by comments like those of Senator Jim DeMint who said "If we're to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." There is so much of this sentiment out there and it disgusts me. These people are elected to protect and serve their constituents - not serve their own egos. I feel like our political process is broken when this is what DeMint takes from the healthcare debate. I would be willing to bet that no one in his family goes without healthcare so what does he care?

Further, I feel like I have unwittingly become an accomplice in the ongoing destruction of the environment. As a member of IREM, the other day I got a notice about lobbying efforts on the American Clean Energy and Security Act in Congress. IREM lobbyists fought against (and won) in the crafting of legislation reducing the requirements of energy reduction for existing commercial buildings. What that means is that the biggest group of buildings that are wasting electricity and generating increased green house gases in the environment are now exempt from the plan that is supposed to reduce electricity and green house gases. I understand why. They are trying to save building owners from any expense that they may incur in making their buildings compliant. I just don't agree. I work in the industry and I know that many owners are going to have to be forced to make these types of changes. One day our government is simply going to have to put "doing the right thing" above making a profit.

So, see my issue? None of these things have much to do with my day to day life... I don't know why I am allowing them to vex me. I have been thinking that maybe I need to find a time to start working out again so that I can exhaust some of these frustrations. I definitely have started listening to more NPR podcasts again since the regular programming just serves to further annoy me. My favorite program is To the Best of our Knowledge. It is an hour long program that picks a topic and then has 3-4 different segments on that one topic. I was listening to one of their programs about travel today and they talked to this guy, Mark Johnson, who has been traveling around the world bringing people together through music. His project, Playing for Change, has been so successful because I think people want to look toward hope. They want to feel how we are all alike - not how we are different. It was just what I needed today.