Many (okay, fine, most) of the people I have interacted with lately have been commenting about me (sometimes to my face and sometimes not) on what a grumpy, grouchy, cantankerous anti-social person I have become.

I paused the other day to ponder this development, and to consider what has caused this peculiar predicament. I have certainly not always been this way — I want to understand the process that has transformed me from a friendly and generally lighthearted soul into a sullen and ill-tempered lump of curmudgeon-like flesh.

I worry too much.

Having come to this insidious conclusion, I decided to make a list.

In retrospect, this was (is) another in a long line of spectacularly bad decisions, but I’ll trudge on with this story none-the-freaking-less.

So, I started to contemplate and ruminate about what worries and upsets me – things that fill my mind with dread, anxiety, irritation and all manner of vexitating thoughts.

Yeah, I know “vexitating” is not a word but combining vexation with irritation is vexitation and I am vexitated, damn it.

One vital note – the items on this list are in no particular order of priority or importance; I simply jotted things down as they occurred to me. At any one time – based on the media news cycles, individual moods, and sunspot activity, items may rise to the top or sink to the bottom.

Kind of like my attitude.

Anyway, here is the list of things I worry about as an American citizen and member of the human race —

• Eugenics
• Genetics manipulation to lower intelligence
• Genetics manipulation (XY) to control population
• Epigenetics resurgence
• Possible dangers of 5G+ / QKD / terahertz radiation
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation
• Random acts of terror
• MERS virus
• Ebola virus
• COVID virus
• Avian (bird) flu virus
• Viruses, in general
• Reptilians (and aliens among us generally)
• Surveillance (including brainwave reading)
• Ubiquitous cameras everywhere (redundant)
• Chips in credit cards and cash
• Superbugs resistant to all antibiotics
• Hydrocarbon neutralization
• Internet censorship
• Censorship, in general
• Transhumanism
• Apocalyptic visions of the end of the world
• Unauthorized government spying on citizens
• Authorized government spying on citizens
• Spying on citizens, in general
• Allergens
• Socialism
• Marxism
• Communism
• -isms, in general
• Takeover of the Health Care Industry by a centralized government
• Education takeover by a centralized government
• Centralized governments, in general
• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Mind pollution
• Pollution, in general
• Possible economic meltdown and devaluation of dollar
• The Federal Reserve’s control of the dollar and the economy
• Voting fraud
• North Korea and possible use of nukes
• Iran and possible use of nukes
• Pakistan and possible use of nukes
• Use of nukes, in general
• Are nukes even real?
• People seeking world domination
• Russia and Ukraine
• China – ally or enemy?
• Who are our allies?
• Who are our enemies?
• Manufactured racism
• Real racism
• Reverse racism
• Racism, in general
• Middle East tension between Islam and Judaism
• Syria and chemical weapons
• Chemical weapons, in general
• Hatred between Arabs and Persians
• Weakness of economies throughout Europe
• Spread of terror by fanatics
• Intelligence level in America on the decline
• Education, news, entertainment designed to keep people stupid
• Deepfake video
• Deepfake audio
• Deepfakes, in general
• Abortion out of control
• Border not secure
• Honeybees dying
• Bad line calls
• NEO (Near Earth Objects) colliding with Earth
• Yellowstone Caldera
• Volcanoes, in general
• Drug cartels
• Rise in synthetic drugs
• Targeted genetic weapons
• Inflation
• High interest rates
• Fire ants, mosquitoes, scorpions, and brown recluse spiders
• Illegal and Undocumented Workers
• Benefits paid to illegal aliens which they did not earn
• Political Corruption
• Politics, in general
• Crony Capitalism
• Drones and Robots
• Bureau of Land Management land grab
• Environmental Protection Agency water grab
• Food & Drug Administration food grab
• Grabs, in general
• Excessive taxation – city, county, state, federal
• Legalization of dangerous drugs
• Rise in prescription drug abuse
• College graduates with no jobs
• College graduates moving back home with mom & dad
• College graduates who never should have gone to college
• Toll Roads
• Fanatics of any ilk
• Big Tech control of Internet
• Big Tech control of News Media
• Big Tech, in general
• FEMA camps
• Ceding US sovereignty to the United Nations
• The United Nations, in general
• Wasted billions on supposed green energy
• Sunspot activity and solar flares
• Changes in the Earth’s magnetic poles
• Artificial Intelligence and Rise of the Machines
• Politicians who cannot seem to tell the truth
• Mainstream media that does not seem to care about the truth
• Truth, in general
• Breakdown of the basic family structure
• Guns in the hands of fools
• Fools, in general
• Sexual Orientation crisis
• Fluoride
• Rapidly rising food costs
• Half the population on food stamps
• Gun running in the Middle East
• Gun running in Central America
• Gun running, in general
• Flying
• Violence rising in US cities
• Corruption seemingly everywhere
• Liberal bias
• Conservative bias
• Libertarian bias
• Human bias
• Bias, in general
• Self-driving cars
• Government Scandals
• No collective will to punish criminals
• Abiotic Oil
• Too much lithium in society
• Vaccines introducing genetic material in host
• HAARP
• DARPA
• Conflicting adaptive strategies

Eventually I grew weary and dispirited from adding items to this stinking list, especially as it dawned on me that none of the items from my own uniquely personal worry list were actually on the list.

You know, spectacularly worrisome things like paying the bills, headaches at my work, headaches with my significant other, mowing my grass, regular bowel movements…

After this profound (or amateur found) insight penetrated my bonehead, I realized worrying about such lists – global or personal – was an terrible trap. It was a spiraling vortex from which you cannot escape because – wait for it – there is always something new that will be next on the list to worry about even if you manage not to worry about the item on the list you were currently worrying about…

Good lawd – confusing, but I had cracked the code! Simply stop worrying!

Sadly, that is freaking impossible. Rather like getting a politician to cut wasteful spending.

Wasteful government spending!!!

Crap – now I have to add that to the list.

I’m going to find a nice quiet place to curl up and worry.

–E