I have been addicted to news. I have been a news junky. I am an addict. When I would watch the news, one comment would set me off. A simple comment like “Most scientists agree…” would set my blood boiling. I would then begin searching the net for resources and arguing ’til I’m blue…fingered on various discussion boards such as dancarlin.com. One day, shortly after we discovered just how sick my mother was, Glenn Beck suggested that we all go without the news for one single day. I did. The first thing I noticed was how little it mattered that I wasn’t watching the news. I didn’t feel bad for missing it. As a matter of fact, I didn’t miss it. I found that I wasn’t as frustrated, opinionated, and flat out scared. The sun still rose the next day, and the next, and even the day after that. People were born and people died and all of the natural things that humans do happened all around me. It just didn’t seem as bad because no one was telling me how bad it was. I find that I am able to genuinely smile at complete strangers and nod to them. And when I do, they often nod and smile back.
I am still interested in the happenings of the world. What I do now is spend about ten minutes a day perusing headlines from msn, cnn, fox… I try to vary my sources, but I almost never read past the first paragraph anymore. I will still occasionally find something that sets me off. Rest asured that when I do, there will be several flaming paragraphs posted here for your enjoyment. But the sun rose again today without it.
Right now, I am spending more time on my family and on my art.