I know many people who make it a point not to watch the news. “I don’t watch the news.” “I can’t watch the news.” “It’s too upsetting. I can’t watch the news.” It freaks them out. They cannot stand it. They cannot separate themselves from what they see. Which is understandable. I don’t sit and stare at the famine in Malawi and feel unmoved. Far from it! But I can’t not watch. I can’t not at least TRY to know what is going on. It’s not just a need I have, or a desire. It feels like a responsibility. I have a responsibility to participate. To watch.
What I really want to say is, yes. The news is horrific. Tragic. Heart-rending. Stressful. Terrible, so sad. It feels like it’s all bad news.
However, it seems important to remember that:
If you block out the bad, you inevitably block out the good as well. There’s a famous quote (by Kafka, maybe??) about: be careful about driving out ALL of your demons. Because in doing so, you may drive out some angels as well.
Regardless of all the pain and suffering one goes through when one watches the parade of misery which is usually the nightly news, occasionally something will come along where the entire world can rejoice. I feel sorry for the people I know who refuse to watch any news at all, ever, because I feel they miss out. They miss out on the overwhelming joy of certain events coming along, which touch humanity, as a whole. They deny themselves that. In shutting out the stress of the news, they also shut out the enlightenment.
And with enlightenment comes something which is so damn important: context. Without context, events cannot be understood. I am not talking about moral relativism, or equivalence. I am not talking about understanding the root cause or anything like that. I am talking about knowing that France and Germany are behaving in such and such a way, and that means THIS, and so that means that then we will do THIS … so that the news you see then makes SENSE. I am talking about knowing that the bombing in Iraq has begun (believe it or not, I know a couple of folks who were unaware that there is an actual war going on). I am talking about being semi-up to date with what is going on, so that when something catastrophic (the Bali nightclub bombing, etc.) or something wonderful (April 9) occurs, we know where to put it. We understand the context of the event. We can handle it.
At least this has been my experience.
Knowledge is power.
I have never felt that stronger than in the past couple of years, since September 11. The people I know who have not gone out in search of context … are baffled, upset, freaked-out, pretty much uninformed and so they make up their minds based on emotion and impulse, they are blown about by every influence, every comment … They don’t know what to think. They are victimized by the news. Victimized by what they do not know. I know intimately what it feels like to be intimidated by what I do not know. To feel … out of touch with the real sources of power and information. I feel weak, powerless to DO anything … There are those who become intimidated by their lack of context, and so shut the whole thing out, and continue to live their lives narrowly, focused on only their personal experiences, the day to day, as though a major world cataclysm was not taking place. That’s fine. That’s their right.
I am merely saying that the people who tune stuff out, miss out on a whole lot of GOOD. That’s all. They miss the chance to jump up and down for joy, because of the good fortune of people they DO NOT KNOW, people they have NEVER MET. What an incredible and life-affirming thing. Whatever your political beliefs, it doesn’t matter. Humanity is humanity.
I cried and prayed for those 9 miners. I wept when they were saved. Total strangers exchanged smiles in the elevator, because those 9 STRANGERS had been rescued. It was a beautiful thing. I have tears in my eyes just remembering it. It was an experience of one-ness with humanity that I have rarely experienced.
Life is good. Life is something to be cherished. Elizabeth Smart returns home, and people everywhere felt relief, happiness .. joy. We all were in the shoes of the Smart parents, trying to imagine how happy they must be. Empathy grows in an experience like that, compassion. It is good for the human race.
If you keep your eyes to the ground, refusing to get involved, you miss out on that opportunity for growth, and communion with others. You really do.
