#oneaday Day 64: Longer Than Anticipated

Urgh. Thought I'd be home earlier than this, but… well.

Rewind a bit. I was out at a local friend's place this evening for one of what used to be our regular board gaming meetups. These have since become extremely irregular since two of our number had at least one child, and it was just three of us this evening. We played Thunderstone, which, if it was a little earlier, I would talk a bit about, because it's a cool game. Maybe tomorrow.

However, after the game concluded, there was a certain amount of drinking from the parties present who were not me. And when said present parties drink, they become not boisterous and rambunctious, but rather up for a good old-fashioned political, philosophical debate. The sort of thing that, generally speaking, is total anathema to me in conversational terms; I spend time and effort actively avoiding that sort of discourse online due to the amount of unpleasantness that generally surrounds it, so I certainly really don't relish the prospect of having it in a real-life situation where I can't escape it.

Well, I tell a lie; I did kind of escape it; I'd had the foresight to take my Switch with me, so I just played some Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition while they debated whether or not one of them was rich enough to "do something" about global warming, whether they were worried about the world maybe possibly ending at some point in the next 50 years and some other bits and bobs that I completely tuned out for.

I know some of this stuff is "important", but I just can't bring myself to care any more, I'm afraid. I've been so bombarded with overtly political messages online for the last few years that I now just put up a "shield" any time such discussions come up, and I don't want to engage. The prospect of engaging with such discussions actively causes me anxiety. I don't begrudge my friends the opportunity for a good debate — they're both the kind of people who have always enjoyed debates like this, the weirdoes — but it's not an activity in which I feel like I can participate in, especially when the matters under discussion just don't matter to me.

I spend enough time and effort worrying about trying to keep myself if not happy then at least vaguely sane. That is a delicate balancing act at the best of times, so I really don't have the energy for anything more. I care about myself and the things close to and important to me. My wife. My cat. My family. My friends. Video games. Music. Writing. Creativity. And that's about it.

And that's enough for me, to be honest.