Way back when I was in my 30s (1970s), I was married for two years to my old high school boyfriend in our home town of Twin Falls, Idaho. Dick happened to be the Editor of the Twin Falls Times-News, and as I walked and biked around town I began to realize that whatever they were publishing in the paper, it was but a miniscule slice of “reality,” and, since that slice was, inevitably, focused on crime, slander, wrong-doing, and so on, if I didn’t watch out I would see “reality” in that way, only.
I asked Dick, “Why only bad news? Why not good news too? You know it’s everywhere, and there’s infinitely more of it!?”
His response, and I should have known beforehand, is that bad news is what draws people’s attention, sells papers, and draws in advertisers.
I wrote a letter to the editor of the paper about this very subject back then, and drew lots of responses, especially from youngish women like myself who wanted, who longed for good news to be publicized, since we knew, with every fiber in us, that good news was just as real, hell, much more real, because way more of it.
Look around in your daily living. How much “bad news” are you actually party to, or witness to? Whatever percentage of your attention IS focused on bad news, you know it’s utterly miniscule (and usually stems from social and other media) compared to the continuous manifest wonders of daily living.
Unless, of course, you’re on pharmaceuticals — anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, and who knows what else! Percentage wise? 50% or more.
Which of course, skews everything, since these people are not “in their right minds.”
Besides:
The problem remains: what we pay attention to is what we tend to not just perceive, but to manifest. And if, contrary to what we “think,” we actually live from the inside out, then let’s face it;
Ergo, the only “rational” mindset is the following:
My dear old friend Claudia, also 81 — she and I met each other back in 1985— told me on the phone from her home on Vashon Island Washington last night that a few days ago, she decided she was going to stop paying attention to the internet, because the constant stream of bad news upsets her so much that it actually makes her blood pressure rise — precipitously!
Instead, she says she’s going to focus on the miracles that manifest on a daily basis.
Bravo!
For many years, I have asked young people whom I am continuously meeting (since I live in a college town), “if there were no obstacles, what would you be doing with your life?”
A big question. Stops them short— and furthermore, eliminates victim consciousness!
A few, very rare, actually know their life’s purpose!
And the others? It starts them thinking longer term than usual, and, perhaps, will ultimately stimulate them to focus on and/or reassess priorities.
Here’s another question, perhaps even better to ask, since it requires an immediate felt connection with the body.
