Did you ever hear the old saying, "Well, no news is good news!" In our society where the media continues to bombard us with "media overload", sometimes the best news is that there "just ain't no news" today! Anne Murray had a hit song years ago that said, "...sure could use a little good news today!"
Sometimes the state of the world drives us to crave simplicity and peacefulness. We may want to lower our carbon footprint, pay fewer taxes, or have more choices about how we conduct our lives, educate our children, live our lives or run our business. We want to escape all those outside forces or we want to stop contributing to the problem. Then ironically, we keep our eyes and ears on the news even as we retreat toward that famous “simple life.” We stay riled and continually upset about the very things we say we’re trying to get away from.
One of the biggest problems I see in myself and others is our habit of getting all knotted up about news, even when we’re far removed from its horrors and have taken all the steps we can to not be part of whatever horror the media keeps telling us about. We talk about it at the coffee shop, in the work place, at the grocery store, etc. We keep talking about things that we truly have no control over...mute issues which have no real relevance to our lives but makes for good stimulating conversation...(much ado about nothing is how I think the Broadway play states it!?)
Of course it is important to stay informed. We do need to keep a watchful eye on whatever unpleasant plans the government may have for us; or what may affect us locally or regionally. If not for country people being watchful about the National Animal Identification System, for instance, that ghastly plan to tag and monitor our homes and all our animals would be a lot further along than it is. (Did you even know about this?!)
But the truth is that we’re mostly over informed these days. We hear and see too much news; we spend a large part of our lives tuned to news and information sources that have no true relevance to us and our simple way of living and it’s nearly all designed to alarm, upset, scare, or disgust us. And much of the news is like Don Henley's hit song, "Dirty Laundry"...telling the "dirt" on others! Most of us could easily cut 90 percent of media out of our lives and still be well informed about the issues that truly matter to us. (Of course...keep your subscription to the St John News...this is REAL, up close and personal information! ha!)
