Getting Lost in the Evening News... and Finding My Way Back

I used to be something of a very addicted newshound. Every day I would pick up a copy of the New York Times and always listen to the news on NPR. My day was not complete unless I had gotten up to speed on what was happening across the country and across the world. Deep down, I may have thought that if I was at least aware of what was happening in the world, maybe I could somehow have an impact on what was happening in other places... or at least see it coming, if some pending disaster was headed my way.

I suffered from a syndrome that goes along with being a newshound. My friends, also inveterate newshounds, and I would sit around and have passionate conversations about what was going on in the world. In the course of any evening, over a bottle of decent wine, we would endeavor to solve the world's problems. And even if we really didn't, we very clearly knew how we would solve the problems we discussed, if we actually had the power to do so.

With my own life momentarily in chaotic disarray, I am focusing on my own problems and issues. If I take the time to make myself aware of anything, I take note of what is going on in my own life and in the lives of the people who are immediately important to me. I have just enough time and money and energy to barely do that. For now, that is enough for me to try to do.

It is not that I am no longer concerned about what is going on in the larger world beyond the defined boundaries of my own existence. I am less fanatical about being "totally informed" because I have realized several things.

First, I couldn't digest all the news that there is to read, if I wanted to. With a deluge every day of new information from the world of politics, science, society, the environment, not to mention the world of arts and entertainment, there is no way I could even catch up 0n even a small fraction of all that news. Even if I could, a lot of the daily news isn't all that important or relevant anyway. With so much to "know" these days, I really need to be somewhat selective in what I try to absorb.

More importantly, I have discovered that from day to day, the news doesn't really change a whole lot. The names in the news may change or the places where the news takes place may change. The new technologies that we use may change a bit and get increasingly high tech. But for the most part, the same sorts of things are happening over and over again, each time a minor variant of what happened in the past. So I no longer get the sense that I am really learning something significantly new anymore.

Besides which, in trying to save the larger world, I was neglecting the more pressing matters in my own life. Having done that, I have paid heavy price and I am trying now to put my own house in order once more. When I have take care of that matter, I will be able to once more take an interest in local and world news. Only when I reach that point, I will try to strike a balance between being aware of what is going on in the world and being aware of what is going on in my own life. If I cannot take care of myself, how in the world can I even try to take on the problems of other people.

I will be like a parent on an aircraft on which the oxygen masks have dropped down in an emergency. I will have to first put on my own oxygen mask and then assist my child to put on hers. That would seem to be the most logical thing to do. But then, like a lot of folks, I did not always do the logical thing in the past. I am trying to be more focused on my own needs so that I can prevent my life from unraveling again. It is a modest start, but it is certainly a move in the right direction. In the meantime, the world and it's problems will have to rock along without me for awhile.