A grizzly week in the news

Another lovely weekend spent on Bella Blue. And it was exactly what we needed after the week of Hollywood style, grotesque events in the news. Early in the week, we learned of an attack in Miami where a crazy nude dude strung out on a designer drug called "bath salts" plucked a homeless fella off the side of the street, stripped him down, beat him unconscious, then started chewing off his face. By the time the cops arrived, and shot the attacker dead, after he growled at them with a mouthful of meat, there wasn't much left of the victim's face. Luckily, or unluckily the man survived and will be the next candidate for a full face transplant. Maybe he will even get his own reality show - that would be nice. I'm sure the networks are on it.

Next up, the strange case of the hungry black bear in Kamloops, BC who came across a dead man in a car on a small back road in hillbilly land, somehow accessed the vehicle, pulled the body out, ate half of it, then dragged the rest of it into the bush and buried it, for later midnight snacking, or maybe as a nutritional gift to a lady bear he fancied. But wait, the story gets better - it turns out the victim was a convicted murderer! The police don't know how he died or why he was there, but the are actively searching out the bushy benefactor of his misfortune to send him to the big petting zoo in the sky.

Lastly is the sickening story of Luka Rocco Magnotta, the small time gay porn actor, who recorded himself murdering and dismembering a gay lover and posted the video online. He then mailed off at least two of the severed body parts to political party headquarters, then supposedly hopped a plane to France. His mother must be very proud.

Which leads me to the point of this posting. In a connected and shrinking world, are we better off knowing the details of these terrible things that happen everyday, the moment they occur, complete with video? Or is it better to remain blissfully ignorant? I can say that the times I have been disconnected, such as fishing trips, sailing trips, all-inclusive trips to the Caribbean, there has never been a moment where I had wished I "knew what was going on". To me, it really doesn't matter, in fact, all this information does is distract you from experiencing the moment at hand, your surroundings, and your companions. I know this goes against the grain of the culture of always-on smart phones and social media, but it does seem that we spend most of our time in somebody else's moment instead of our own. In June we will be spending two disconnected weeks in the Azores and I can hardly wait. That will be shortly followed up with two partially disconnected weeks on our annual sailing trip on Lake Erie. I plan on experiencing each and every moment, then blogging about it so I can be a total hypocrite and encourage you to shun your own personal moments in favor of my own. I will also do my best to make my life and experiences as glamorous, as intensely spiritual, as remarkable, as death defying, and as incredibly unique as possible, by using the right mixture of complete fiction, half truths, partial lies, creative fabrication and even the odd truthful tidbit here and there, to make it as rewarding a read as possible, and to offer you the opportunity to momentarily escape the daily drudgery. Please make some time for me and forget about Rocco - he really doesn't matter too much.