For my edification

I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks feeling angry and agitated.  I knew a case of raging PMS played a large part in it.  The weather, the seemingly never ending frigid temperatures and snow wasn’t helping either.  A broken computer and a failed attempt to get a new one just added insult to injury.  But late last week I realized something else was adding to the stress.

I tend to be a news junkie.  In the morning I usually check anywhere from four to ten news sites to see what’s happening in the world.  On top of that, many of my feeds on Facebook are news or political organizations.

What I’ve been finding lately is many of the site are more interested in invoking an emotional response rather than just reporting the facts as news.  Headlines are misleading if not downright wrong.  The stories leave out critical details, giving only one, biased side of the events in question.  In an attempt to sway me to their way of thinking, the author or reporter many times tells lies of omission. 

After reading articles that often paint a picture far from the truth, I have felt used and abused.  My time has been wasted and my emotions have been manipulated and played upon.

Late last week, Thursday to be exact, after reading one too many of these "stories" I decided that I have had enough.  Life is too short and too precious to be conned by charlatans posing as journalists.

I am tired of reading "what’s wrong with the world."  Chesterton’s response to that question when posed to him was short and to the point, "I am."

We’re human.  Humanity long has screwed up, both on a personal level and the world around him.  Just check out Adam and Eve.

But the bigger question is "What are we going to do about it?"

What are we, what am I, going to do to make it better?

For me, the first step is to take myself out of the line of fire.  Being bombarded by misleading headlines and stories of only partial truths was eating too much at my soul and at my sanity.

I unfriended, unfollowed, and removed from favorites any and all news feeds that I found questionable, which was pretty much all of them.  And I bet you might be surprised at some that have been banished.

I am not going to stick my head in the sand and ignore the world around me.  But, I will be much more selective of where, when and from whom I get information.

What I want to do instead is fill that void with positive action and soul nourishment.  I need to figure out how to make things good and just and right, if not for the whole of humanity, for my little part of it.

I need that for my edification.


AMDG