Then a good friend of mine got frustrated with me and all the random NOISE and my split attention during our skype calls and I stopped. Yep. Cold turkey. Turned it all off.
The first few days I was definitely in withdrawal. What was the President doing or saying? hummm? Did Michelle get criticized again for wearing sleeveless blouses? Will I ever get healthcare so that I can get my broke ankle fixed?
I played KBCO, "WORLD CLASS ROCK" on my laptop continuously...with no relief.
Then I got one of those sure-fire ideas. You know, the kind that Wile E. Coyote gets right before the 2000# weight drops from the cliff above, missing Roadrunner but flattening him like rolled out pie dough.
What if I acted like nothing mattered in my life except the things I did each day. The people, places, circumstances and issues that found their way into my sphere of life and influence. After all, that is all I really had control over anyway.
Now, mind you, this took several months to accomplish. Like Wile E Coyote, it took focus and determination. But, just as Wile E. Coyote finally DID catch Roadrunner, I am very proud to say that I am a recovering news-junkie and I have been news-free for 4 months and have found a new background noise to listen to - my heart.
Friends think it weird of me not to listen to the news on the radio, not wto atch it on the tube, not to read a newspaper for all the latest on the Prez, the health law controversies, the latest on Britney, or even what turned out to be the tornado that hop-skipped through the area last summer!
ReplyDeleteI DON'T LISTEN to news/talk etc OR WATCH ABC, CNN, etc OR READ THE NEWSpaper because if someone wants to inform me about something, I let them....and if they are apalled at why I don't know and why I don't do it, I simply say "Why listen to it since most of it is negative! It's just the way I do it. Anyway, Dexter (or Burn Notice or True Blood or.....) is a hell of a lot more interesting!"
I cold-turkeyed on it a few years ago. Now, all I have to do is cold-turkey from the computer at 2am! Got a cure for that one? :-)
TTFN!
Ah... living in the moment. What a treat! News is nice in small pieces, yet it truly is the day-to-day hum of life that makes for the most pleasant living. Relationships are key...and even though listening to the news feels like you are having a "relationship" with the Prez (not that way...this isn't Bill), it's not! It's about the people directly in your life.
ReplyDeleteI listen to NPR in the morning on my way to work - but only if I am alone. Days when I drive one of the kids to school, I talk to them. It can be about anything. Time in the car, when they can't walk away is so valuable!
Keep listening to your heart. The song gets stronger as you listen and pretty soon everyone can hear it.