One is my distractions from the sadness that is surrounds us is baseball. Here is a sunny day I spent at the ballpark last month. As I have posted before, I get out in nature; which helps. Oh yeah, catching a buzz is a good distraction.
This is my perfect afternoon. Baseball is playing on the radio in the background while I work in my veggie garden.
What do you do to take your mind away from the bad parts of the world?
© 2026 – SoulSequel
14 responses to “What do you do to distract yourself from the horrors of life?”
P.S. That is Safeco Field in Seattle, where the Mariners play. I love this ballpark. It has great food, amazing beers, and many, many places to view the game other than your seat.
@Gina But it aint the King Dome…(which was demoed and no longer there.)
I sold hotdogs and beer at the King Dome many years ago.
@immortal_pirate I went to many games at the King Dome, and it was fun when we were winning; but baseball should be played outdoors, on natural turf. When they opened Safeco, the moment I saw the fresh grass on the field; I cried.
@immortal_pirate Crap! Where did the edit button go?! I need to add….you worked at the King Dome! Wow. If you sold veggie dogs, I might have bought one from you.
@Gina Quite possible…how old (or young) were you in 1977?
@immortal_pirate Aaah, that’s the year I graduated high school in California. I didn’t move to the north until 1990. As you probably know, 1977 is the year the Mariners started and moved into the King Dome. Actor Danny Kaye was one of the owners.
@Gina I had the pleasure of meeting Danny Kaye back then…
@immortal_pirate Cool! He seemed like a very nice man.
@Gina He was…
I don’t distract myself from life, however horrible it is or can be. I don’t let irrational fears stop me from enjoying life to it’s full abundance. I enjoy music and art in many forms and genres.
@immortal_pirate But, I think that is a distraction. It’s not unhealthy to distract ourselves. I doubt you are thinking of (whatever bugs you) when you are in your element; making art and enjoying music.
Personally, I garden and I am taking gardening classes at BOONgardens to learn about gardening in Arizona —- which must be just like gardening on the surface of the sun. Our planting season is in August to start seeds out of the heat. September is the month for starting sets of plants —— but the soil is hard and sandy, and contains salt!!!! It also contains rattle snakes and scorpions, among other garden pests. I am doing container gardening in a green house. October and November are flowering and fruiting months and the harvesting is at the end of November and December. In December, the chill factor will kill everything.
Immortal Pirate and I dress up and go to Renaissance Festivals and enjoy Pirate Day as Pirates, and again for Celtic Festival where kilts abound. In September, there is a Pirate Day party on a floating restaurant on Lake Pleasant’s Scorpion Bay Marina — Dillons Restaurant. It is a big shindig. Immortal Pirate was invited to be the Captain of the Black Scorpion pirate ship on Scorpion Bay. Often, there are special Occasions on Mill Ave. near the Arizona State University. Halloween is special and there are thousands that show up in costume, then the New Years Eve Celebration cannot be missed. We also walk down Mill Ave. just to visit all the stores and have dinner and drinks.
We live near (too near) to the Phoenix International Raceway, but Immortal Pirate does not like NASCAR and racing fans going through town to get to the raceway are rude and annoying. They don’t stop for stop signs or stop lights. I am sure there are signs and lights wherever they come from, but they treat our city like a free-for-all ignoring all traffic laws. So, NASCAR race day is a day to not leave our house.
We enjoy going out to the desert and collecting buckets of sand from the gold mine washes. We bring it home to pan it for gold. There is gold in sand. Even the bags of playground sand from the Home Depot or Lowes garden center will have pan-able gold in it.The sand along West coast beaches is rich with gold. It is an adventure! Then we just pick an old road and see where it takes us. There are so many quaint and old gold mining towns. We love to explore the deserts.
We go to the Flatiron or Sugarloaf, or Burnt mountain and practice target shooting and gun safety.
Most of all, we have our favorite theaters and restaurants to have a day and night on the town. Phoenix is a wonderful place to live and there is so much to do.
Long walks in Nature help. A good movie provides a bit of distraction. Conversing with another and finding shades of the Light in them is good.
But even in “totally natural” systems, far removed from Human influence, there is “the horror” of predation — the “taking of another’s energy” unto their “undoing”. And one cannot partake of Human-created entertainment without this theme being there too — so even in “the distraction” is a reminder of the often-harsh reality.
I wonder if perhaps part of the solution, is to not let “what is endemic” . . . horrify us. One doesn’t have to deny the feelings that rise when one “rages against a bad gal/guy”, takes pleasure in their “defeat” . . . or sees the skeletal remains of a yearling fawn ripped apart by a wolf pack.
The trick is perhaps to learn to not let one’s feelings run away with them over things that have happened, that are happening, that will continue to happen.
Because while we’re off playing emotional roller-coaster with/for ourselves, we’re “unavailable” to do anything meaningful about it in the real world.
Or to put it another way, the surest way to render someone “unavailable” to do what is good and right and noble in any moment . . . is to have them “distracted” with the emotions of being offended, horrified, angry, traumatized etc.
I watch informative and entertaining videos, read fantasy, read and write on questions on BBSes, write tabletop RPG articles, and cook.