Noises off, please!

November 5, 2010

I come from a loud family. Just ask my husband Mark. Or anyone else who does not share my DNA makeup. When all the Raglins were alive and thriving, if you had walked into one of our family gatherings, you'd have thought you'd walked into a seven-layer dip. Only noisier and less tasty.

So I'm used to noise and interaction. And, in the right place, I will celebrate those qualities. Like the time I got to play Pictionary with my friend Cheryl, who, by day, is a quiet, unassuming, sharp cookie who does not require the limelight.

Play Pictionary with her, though, and Cheryl's Jekyll gets the best of her. I discovered this side of Cheryl long ago, while hoping she'd recognize the doodle I'd just etched. Sand slipping from the timer's grip, she never did figure out what it was I had drawn for her, but that didn't stop her from screaming out her answer, "boy george! boy GEORGE! BOY GEORGE!" over and over and over again, as though the shouting eventually would transform that doodle into Boy George.

And I'm so glad that I was there that night when Cheryl got down with her noisy, bad self!

Cheryl's ineffective but hilarious "Pictionary" outbursts, though, share nothing with the amped-up outbursts of too many U.S. pundits and politicians these days.

Somewhere along the line, adults decided that the "indoor voice" rule only applied to their children. Why we would ever think it logical to expect more from a 5-year-old than we would of our own adult selves is a noodle scratcher to me...

Yet there he is--big, fat, brash Rush Limbaugh, on the cover of my "Newsweek" magazine this week, with bold "Power 50" type stamped across his immense, bile-filled barrel chest. Why "Newsweek" decided to grace its cover with this Oxycontin-loving hypocrite who can't stay married any more than he can keep his trap shut is beyond me. And when I opened the mailbox this afternoon, only to be greeted by that creepy, Buster-Browned face of John Boehner, well, I started to wonder if I should have passed on that extra serving of mushrooms last night.

Seems I have fallen down the rabbit hole, and it's a surprisingly noisy place, considering its size.

I'm no fan of Rush Limbaugh (why is it okay for adults to be bullies, but we consider legislating against the young bullies who hang out on our playgrounds?), but I don't care who is doing the shouting these days--Republican or Democrat, or the one or two Independents who've managed to find a job. It just plain offends me. I don't need the volume.

I need thoughtful answers, and thoughtful answers seldom come from blowhards with bulging veins on their foreheads.