Who Cares? - Dear America

Dear America,

Lately, I have been fantasizing about the joys of apathy. Whether it is work, romance, friendship, or building the perfect tabletop role-playing game, I find that I perhaps care too much. At the office, I consider part of my paycheck is that I should care about what I'm doing, but I am also a hopeless perfectionist. My coworkers get paid around the same amount as I do, but I produce the majority of work and shoulder burdens they don't. I don't really hold it against them, as I kind of admire their willingness to not give a fuck.

I've spoken on Daoism before in my letters to you and that I really appreciate it, but it's an appreciation that is akin to a visitor observing a foreign land. Of the many things Daoism teaches us, it preaches going with the flow of the river of life (a nice way of saying not to give a fuck). Such a concept is kind of hard for me considering I feel like I spend most of my time either swimming upstream or attempting to build a dam.

What are your thoughts on the nature of relationships? A friend of mine mentioned that trust was the key to any type of relationship, but I think I subconsciously believe that it is actually effort that most matters. If both sides genuinely make efforts to keep in touch, interact, and communicate, I think even some breaches of trust can be resolved. The issue I noticed though is when to determine whether the effort being provided on one end is too much, not enough, or just right (unfortunately, Goldilocks could not be consulted for this post).

In a day and age where Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Snapchat, and God-knows-what-else is out there, most people are more than ever able to reach out to one another, but the point is kind of moot. I don't need to ask "how ya been?" when I can literally view timelines of your life going all the way back to when you originally surrendered all your personal information to Mark Zuckerburg.

The dating world is especially precarious as putting too much effort in a relationship makes you a creeper, while putting too little makes you a flake. I imagine the flakes have it better than the creepers as they didn't really care to begin with anyhow.

Part of me wants to take a vow of apathy at this very moment, but as soon as I think about it, I'm reminded of things that I want to do. Not giving a fuck is a lot harder than it sounds I suppose... Cheers to you glorious bastards that can pull it off!

Sincerely,

Calhoun