No News = Good News?

This week was kind of overwhelming for me, with all the things that were in the news, particularly the latter part of the week. I kept checking the news sites to see what was going on--and how many people had died--in the fire in Rhode Island, and then there was the little Mexican girl who died after the botched transplant operation, and the explosion on Long Island, and, earlier, the other nightclub deaths in Chicago . . .

And the war, and the government admonishments to be prepared.

I think maybe our ancestors, despite hard lives, were happier without knowing all the problems and tragedies of everyone in the world. They had their own problems, of course, as do we, but if someone on the other side of the world died, they didn't immediately know it, or care.

Bob says I'm too sensitive to it, and I know that's true. At some point, it seems, you have to harden yourself to the bombardment of news, or go crazy. I'm not sure what the answer for me is. I almost never read the newspaper, although I did this morning, and I don't often watch television news unless there's something big going on. But I do read the internet news sites several times a day--CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo!--and maybe I need to stop doing that, at least for awhile.

The thing is, though, that I feel guilty about that, too (at this point, Bob would probably be throwing up his hands). Like if I don't keep up, I'm not keeping up my part of the bargain. That even though there's nothing I can do about any of it, if I'm not at least aware of it, I'm letting someone (who, I'm not sure) down.

Andrew Weil recommends taking a mental health break from the news. He calls it a "news fast," and says:

A study last February in the British Journal of Psychology found that the emotional content of television programs can provoke changes in mood, and aggravate anxiety, sadness and depression. This in turn, according to the research, is likely to promote a negative and catastrophic view of one's own life. DrWeil.com.

Bob's solution to most things is to get up and do something about them; I'm not exactly in favor of the duct tape and plastic sheeting that the government has been trying to scare us with, but Bob said we should have emergency supplies anyway, in case of bad weather or tornadoes, in case the power goes out, etc., so we went to Lowe's this afternoon and bought some painter's respirators (a couple for us for the house and a package for me to put in my car), batteries, duct tape . . . and we're going to make a list and get a first aid kit together, and make a box of non-perishable food.

I guess maybe if we do that, then I can quit worrying about it.

Misty writes:

I don't want to know who our allies are. What country we plan on stomping through on our way to wage war. I want to stop counting those I know who are no longer here, but elsewhere in a sandy and strange desert. I don't want to turn the radio on in the morning wondering what the news will bring. I am tired of hearing the arguments and the rationalizations and reasons. I'm tired of the bright lights and complex systems.

I don't know what the long-term solution is, but I think I need to step away from it for awhile or I'm going to drown.

After we got home, I played The Sims for awhile. I thought maybe the Willa and Bob Sims family needed to make up a "be prepared" box, too, but I couldn't find a good place to store it--they don't have a garage or a basement. I thought about getting them a pantry, but then decided not to worry about it. It isn't real life, after all.

The first thing that happened was that there was another fire in the kitchen. Bob, cooking in his swimsuit again.

So then I went to check out the Jedi household. Qui-Gon was on the phone, and the house was overrun with all these strange animals--a couple of cats and a dog that had apparently let themselves into the house.

Audra, the cat who lives there, was in the litterbox.

There are a lot more houses now in the neighborhood, since I upgraded to Unleashed, and some of them are occupied, so I picked one to check out, the "Kat" family, which is, delightfully enough, that bastion of the old neighborhood, the Cat Lady. The lady that will probably be me someday. A little old gray haired lady with four or five cats. She works as a substitute teacher, and paints in her spare time, on an easel set up in the garden.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan went over to visit her, and they seemed to be talking about having a birthday party for someone.

Maybe Obi-Wan, since he was just standing there, trying to look like he wasn't listening.

I made red beans and rice tonight for my lunches this week. I'll have that, along with some sourdough bread and cantaloupe, and I bought a bag of oranges--I really wanted grapefruit, but they were too expensive--and some bananas. And hummus, that's always a treat for me.

I also finally got out this week and bought some potassium. I'd run out of it, but thought I had another bottle. I couldn't find any, though. My legs have been bothering me at night--that "nervous legs" thing, which is probably lack of potassium. The bananas should help, too.