I sat down this morning with my coffee and my Kashi and I thought, I'll check out the paper. I opened the Richmond Times-Dispatch to find murder, heartbreak, vandalism, tragedy, gang activity, candidate-bashing, and terrorism. On B-x, there was a segment about a young man who stole a car on Christmas Eve with a toddler inside (side note: who the hell leaves a toddler alone, inside an unlocked SUV, much less on Christmas Eve?!) and killed an older couple inside their home. On A-y, one of the cover stories was about Obama's administration boasting the foiling of a 2009 terrorist plot surrounding a bomb implanted in someone's underwear. Over in C-z, I ran across an obituary for a sixteen-year-old who "departed this life suddenly" (i.e. violently). There were sketches of a man suspected of robbing people's homes and vehicles in broad daylight while they are at work. There was a Crime Solvers blurb about vandalism occurring in a safe and family-friendly neighborhood. The clincher? Police aren't sure if the spray-painted messages were performed by deviant children or members of the Ku Klux Klan. Everywhere I looked, there was hatred, destruction, and sadness.
I closed the paper and decided to take my coffee outside to join my mom and Caroline in the swing. It's not that I choose to turn my back on the harsh realities of this world; I just choose to see the good in people and to believe that someone, somewhere, is better than that. For example, a local high school student was recognized for hitting two consecutive holes-in-one -- beating odds that are slightly better than willing the nine-digit Powerball lottery. Also featured were pictures of rescue teams from 23 special units around the state, participating in a rescue challenge at King's Dominion to provide them extra experience in case they encounter what might be considered "out of the ordinary" circumstances. I thought, how brave!, as I scanned the photo of a rescue worker pulling a 185-pound dummy to safety, several stories above the lake underneath the Anaconda roller coaster.
This may come off sounding ignorant or naive, but half the time, the reason I choose to avoid reading the paper is because I don't care to read about everything horrible and awful that is occurring around me. I'd like to think that the Big Man Upstairs watches all of this activity and feels anguish for the people experiencing such tragedy daily. I'm a firm believer in "YOLO," and that each of us is given this life to make of it the best we possibly can. Every cloud has a silver lining, doesn't it?
P.S. Do you read the daily paper? If so, why?
1 comment:
This is the reason why I focus on sports news. The worst news you will hear there is a coach being fired or a player being suspended. I ignore "headline" news because of its depressing nature. The media knows that people feed off of bad news and "drama" (if you will). So they continue to feed it to the masses.
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