I Stand (un)Corrected

The blog I was going to write today –- well, actually I did write it; I just decided not to publish it –– was, quite frankly, entirely reactionary.
It’s not worth going into the details but basically while watching Saturday Night Live, I stumbled on something bizarre about myself on the interwebs, something riddled with factual errors (and a high doze of crazy).
At first I felt inspired to respond immediately.
Thank God that Belle, like a buddy stopping a bar fight as it threatens to get ugly, held me back at 1 am.
On Sunday morning, I had a brainstorm:  maybe the publicist at my publisher should respond with corrections.
Yet when Monday morning rolled around they responded that it was all so ridiculous and that I should do nothing at all, rather than adding fuel to the fire.
Deep inside, I know they are right –– any response is ridiculous –– and yet … Oh James Blunt, why can’t you help me tweet this away!
Look, I understand that people have different tastes.
For example, two of my greatest friends and I agree on almost everything –– books, movies, plays and cuisine –– but they both hate salmon which basically I live my entire life around.
And I am able to live with that diversity. (Barely).
Forgiveness has become an unexpected early theme of 2014, but this is a new level of Letting Go for me:  peacefully allowing someone to publish things that are indisputably inaccurate, even blazingly stupid.
Intellectually, I understand that the correct reaction should be “Who Cares?” followed by a shrug and never thinking about the subject again.
And yet …
It’s so much easier to think (aka “obsess”) about the one ridiculous/cruel/stupid stray remark rather than the 99 supportive and encouraging ones.
When I was sharing this, one of my smart friends referred to this phenomenon of obsessing about the negative as basically human evolution’s response to keep us safe:  we are hard-wired to look for the one tiger in the jungle, rather than endlessly delighting at the tropical floral and fauna.
And to my credit, I’ve done a surprisingly good job of letting this go than I might have before, even viewing it as another step on “a media platform building experience.”
Indeed, while there’s still a part of me that hopes this particular Flat Earth believer may wander too close to the edge and simply fall off … honestly, after this blog, I’m pouring myself a glass of Lillet and prepping for Teen Wolf and … Letting Go.