A few posts back I announced that I have given up on following or participating in politics. It has just become to grinding for me. Last night I was reading a book called The Essential Thomas Jefferson and I came across the following quote in his letter to John Randolph dated August 1775

My first wish is a restoration of our just rights (he was talking about the British government’s unjust laws for the colonies) ; my second, a return of the happy period, when, consistently with duty, I may withdraw myself totally fro the public stage, and pass the rest of my days in domestic ease and tranquility, banishing every desire of ever hearing what passes in the world.

So, I am in pretty good company in wanting to tune out the rest of the world. Especially the ugliest parts.

Of course it was several more years before Jefferson was able to return to the tranquility of Monticello. He had to write the Declaration of Independence, become a minister to France, become a president of the U.S. and lastly to triple the size of the United States via the Louisiana Purchase. Me, I am not nearly as busy so I do go for days without hearing what passes in the world.

And the journey goes on…..