Operating on the theory that ignorance is bliss, I decided two days ago to start a news fast: no newspaper, no magazines, no talk radio, no television (inluding Anderson Cooper and Piers Morgan, two men I have begun to love deeply ~), no NPR, no MSN headline crap when my internet powers on.
I am one of those anxious and neurotic people who can't read obituaries without starting to hyperventilate. What do you mean, Cheryl A. Brown died suddenly? She was only 36. ONLY 36! I have lived 11 years longer. ELEVEN YEARS LONGER!
I am one of those people who feels compelled to start an ad hoc committee whenever I read an article about something in the community that is wrong, plain WRONG, and if only folks would gather together ~ none of us is as smart as all of us, right? ~ well, then, we'd find a solution to the problem. Only I lose interest thirty minutes after the idea springs to mind, because I've either all of a sudden got a hankering for stovetop pudding, the kind you have to stir nonstop for twenty minutes, or a dog needs to be let out, or my husband needs a load of clothes washed right now for his upcoming business trip, which is tomorrow.
I am one of those people who cannot watch any animal commercial that features dogs with missing ear bits and crusty, oozy eyes, especially if Sarah MacLachlan is singing softly in the background. Those sad commercials can set me back emotionally for hours and hours.
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My two-day news fast has ended, and here is what I have found: I am not as stressed about planet earth and gun violence and missing children. I am, however, stressed that Something Big might have happened and I have missed it. My job now is to decide which feeling is worse.
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