We stopped the paper two years ago after I couldn't stop sneezing from the newspaper ink. But that wasn't the reason. I found myself starting the day with doom and gloom. Our breakfast time, a holy beginning should not be poisoned with that preposterous hoopdedoodle. As expected I got the daily phone calls from the Times and humble offerings I should not be able to refuse just to start up again. Two years later I found a letter from them in my mailbox that knocked down my prior $44.00 monthly payment to $6.00 a month. I think that is the bottom line desperado ploy of a dying institution.
Yesterday a true blue 79 year old patient I've known for almost 30 years came into the office and told me that over the holiday season he especially had to battle against negativity in the news and all around, as he put it. This is a man who prefers a good inspirational book.
The complexity of how we are mind controlled into thinking that news is good, after all, we need to know what is happening in the world just stinks to the highest heaven. To be bombarded by what we are not, what does not serve us and what creates havoc in our purest hour is the challenge we face and must combat. If we do not, our ungrateful bodies mental, emotional and physical will tell us the consequences of that unforgivable sin.
If the rhetoric on the news makes us nod so hard our neck snaps we get into the compliancy of yeah! If the news forces its hand and makes us sick of hearing the same gawdawful broken record we get irritable. What is the percentage of good news being broadcasted? We hold in reverence the loud boisterous commentary reporters funny or not because they are well, loud and forcing their point. Who wouldn't listen to that? Like the guy who screams about the stocks. At the top of his lungs with the arm gestures. Our insecure hand is being forced to hold onto the fear.
This is not entertainment. This is a living hell of banter and disinformation and contrived and blown so far out of proportion events that make every channel on the television choke with it. Even if we hit the mute button on the remote we still get the banner across the screen. How would a caged animal react to being inundated with this kind of noise hour after hour, day after day?
But thank God for the mute button and the fast forward arrow. The few good shows I watch does not need the distraction at commercial time to learn about a new drug that has 1400 side effects including death.
So here is your test of courage this New Year. Don't watch the news. Stop your paper subscription. Pass on the Internet news pages. Don't engage in "the world is going to hell in a hand basket" conversation. We are mortals who have come to serve each other in grace and goodness. We need not be tainted or plummeted with information we can live without.
