I was watching the news yesterday. The usual newsy stuff along with the not so newsy stuff, like a video of a toddler and family dog jumping up and down when Daddy comes home from work. How is that news? I can send our local network plenty of videos of my pooch doing cutesy things. Do you think the producer would include it in the show's lineup? I don't know ... I mean, they only have ... hmm ... let's see, an hour of morning news, three hours of afternoon/evening news, and one hour of nightly news to fit a tiny video into their program. Of course, most all of it is looped to repeat several times a day.
I guess at this point I should mention I'm not ranting just to, well, rant. I'm making a point. Really. We've become a society of over-saturation. News, news and more news, streaming into our lives via television, computer, tablet, and phone. Twenty-four seven to stay connected. Makes you wonder how news people managed to do it years ago in a half hour evening segment. Of course, I do realize one purpose of this is to make news available to accommodate every one's busy schedule. There's bound to be a point during the day we're free to turn on or plug in our device and be informed. Over-saturation.
I remember learning in psychology class how watching videos with a violent theme over and over again tends to make a person immune to witnessing violence. Scary thought. Of course I cry over everything! Like those Hallmark commercials and the one showing closeups of the faces of those sad-eyed little abused puppies. You know the one where Sarah McLachlan sings "Angel" in the background? And don't get me started on movies or books where a dear family pet dies in the story. I won't watch. (Old Yeller traumatized me forever.) Anyway, the saying "ignorance is bliss"* comes to mind. Most days or weeks, I'd rather be blissful, happily ignorant living in my own little world of fiction, thank you very much. Maybe it's my age -- years of being over-saturated with the misery going on around me. Avoiding that is quite desirable. But then I wouldn't be very well informed, as all those news mongers would argue. Not saying it's right for everyone, but I'm okay with it. Sort of. I like to be informed. Makes me not look so stupid when I'm in a group of people discussing world views. But I can only take so much saturation. Give me small doses, thank you very much. That will do just fine.
"There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" -- T.S. Eliot
*Ignorance is bliss -- a phrase coined by Thomas Gray in his Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.
Have a great week, all. And happy writing!
This news broadcast is brought to you by Kathryn Long, a blissfully optimistic soul who will always appreciate the positives in life. :-)
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