The News

I have said many times since I started writing my blogs that we do not watch the news anymore. I have wondered through the last year and thought I might be missing out on what is going on in the world but every time I turn on the TV or I am somewhere where there is a TV on I find that I am not missing out on anything good. So now I must seem like some sort of hermit to the rest of the world. Not knowing what is going on. But that reminds me of a tour guide we had in Yellowstone, he told us that he lived in Yellowstone year round and that they do not get any TV reception and if it is not on the top half of the USA Today he does not know it happens. That was his daily news to stop and read the headline through the window on the Newspaper box. Well I now think this would be bliss.

Well today I went to eat at one of my favorite places for a late breakfast. Taking a couple mental health days alone. Just been getting a little to close to the edge lately and feel like I am on the brink. The anxiety and the tears are right there and I really can't explain why.

Just like a lot of places there is a TV on. It is on CNN. Nothing against CNN but is there never a good story to tell anymore. So my brunch included The memorial service for the bombing victims in Boston and a Sink Hole in Chicago that swallowed 3 cars with video footage of one of the cars falling into the hole and for the icing on the cake a Fertilizer Plant in Texas blew up. This was all in about 30 minutes.

All of these things I would not have to know if I wouldn't have looked. But with the TV on I guess I get the feeling if I'm not paying attention I will miss something. Or maybe just hoping some good will shine through at the end. Well I would be ok with not knowing. The image of a man who was clearly in the Fertilizer Plant during the explosion with cuts and blood splattered on his face must make for excellent ratings but makes for a terrible partner for a meal. I was trying to think back to when this obsession started. I guess the first Gulf War. So much could be watched live on TV 24 hours a day with only breaks for commercials and if it is just to terrible to break away for a commercial we will run them side by side like a Nascar race or keep the Crawl scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Why have we become a people obsessed with knowing everything terrible right away.

I usually get my news at work and that is where I was when the bombs went off in Boston. This is a subject I was not going to write about. I don't know why. But I wasn't going to. But I feel like as I wrote in December in What have we become? again another group of Americans are again going to start the process. The Grief. The Anger. The Pain. Hopefully the Healing.

Those viewers who soak up the news and feed off knowing everything. I just wonder if the people doing these horrible things are doing them for you. Not personally but to have their 15 minutes to be on TV. Or do these people committing the crimes just want to show how smart they are. By watching the play by play the of the police trying to solve the crime. Is the news their own Law and Order, Criminal Minds or CSI? See if they see them self on TV. I know these are pretty sick images of Human Beings but how or why else. The only word for me is Terror. The excitement of knowing others are running scared and the person committing the crime feeds from it. This is why I was not going to write about the bombing. It paints a bleak picture. And my words are painting images that no artist would put brush to paper to create.

So here we are for the I don't know how many times I am going to plead that the people hurt heal both mentally and physically. And again for those obsessed with knowing  I said it best in December "I think the best we could collectively do as a people is turn off the damn tv for the next week and let their advertising dollars go straight to hell", that continue to show the pain and suffering of others. The people showing these images do not know the effect it has on some. And would make a story of the suffering if they could make a buck.

I am sure there is no Beautiful World Channel because who would watch, but I know it is getting to the point that I would not be the only viewer. I love to watch Aerial America on Smithsonian and there used to be a show on called Sunrise and it was that first hour in the morning as the sun rose over some place any place. I saw ones that were from Tibet and Maine and the Everglades. The Sunrise showed the natural sounds of the morning Frogs and Birds letting each other know it is time to start another busy day. There was another show that showed different places from a Hot Air balloon. These shows are full of beauty, architecture, culture and history.

I will end with a happy image. How about a show of elementary school kids getting off the bus the last day of school in the summer full of anticipation and excitement for the summer ahead. Showing off their awards for perfect attendance or a prized picture made for their mom to mark the end of another great school year and a beginning of a fun and adventurous summer. Now that must bring back some memories and make you smile. It does me and there they are the tears again...