Here's the rope... swing with it

For once, I actually have something to say in terms of venting my spleen. I'll try not to turn this into a rant as opposed to a kneejerk reaction with some intelligence towards an article I've just read. I will preface the forthcoming by saying this is a tiresome subject that keeps cropping up and I honestly can't fathom why someone would waste their time (over) analyzing such an mundane topic (when you get down to brass tacks).

I love the Utne Reader; have been a subscriber for the better part of 14 years. The latest issue has an article about the problem of those immersed in iPod. This is the 6th or 7th time I've seen or heard stories castigating those of us who enjoy their music and their solitude. What right or business is it of someone to look down upon people who have no desire to "interact"? Let me attempt to give you examples of my take--and that I'm actually on the defensive is pretty pathetic:

a) No one enjoys commuting. While I'm on the ferry, either going to or coming home from work, I have my iPod and can enjoy music that will either fit the mood of the day while I gather my thoughts, organize my notes or try to diffuse after a long day. It's simple.

b) I don't particularly enjoy being hostage to hearing loud, obscenity-laden conversations with some of the downright buffoons that ride the ferry, nor do I want to hear the incesant buzz of gibbering tourists or teenage cretins on their cellphones.

c) Music is there to enhance, enrich and be something of an immolient in my life.

d) On a technical level, with iPod (or any personal mp.3 player), you no longer hear the spillage from someone else's headphones and you're less likely to be annoying to the person next to you.

Who are you (to the author) to be so patronizing? I'm not someone who needs people; who needs to have connection and communing with nature or God or public activism. I don't care. And it's my choice to not care, whether you like it or not. What concerns me concerns me; what doesn't doesn't and listening to music on an iPod to soothe whatever may trouble my soul at that particular moment should be of no consequence to you. Here's a novel concept. Mind your own damned business. The author comes off as one of those insufferable (faux) do-gooders; the politically-correct bullshitters and ex-hippies (or hippie-wannabes) who want to see all of us blend in a cultural stew of joy and harmony.

How about respecting the rights to peace, quiet, good music and privacy? Whatever happened to that?

Just a thought. Or a rebuttal.