"The media is like the weather, only it's man made." -Mickey Knox
For the past 10 years I've had the hobby of—oops—not paying the cable bill. It can be for many reasons ranging from: people not answering me after I've asked them several times what they want for dinner, only to later complain about dinner; to the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, that had America riveted to our tears. After that I just didn't feel like paying the bill. Sure I'd miss the next season of Bob's Burgers but, I wouldn't be tuned in to America's latest tragedy.
And anyways, it's mostly garbage, we all know it, but still insist to ourselves that it's a life line, and merely changing the channel doesn't change anything.
Now, let's just say after enduring the last presidential election, my facebook is not very "newsy", so when there's no TV, it only takes me about a week to come to the realization that I don't know a shred of headline news. Maybe not for some, but I find it a liberating moment.
It's been a little over a week since the last remaining free channel subscription ran out, and little did I know at my latest moment of liberation, that a young boy from Alabama was abducted from his school bus, and the bus driver was shot dead while trying to save little boys and girls. In fact, I only learned of his capture tonight, after he'd been rescued four days later from his capture, who was killed. Now I can honestly tell you without meeting him, that I would just love that little boy. But I can honestly tell you, I'm glad I didn't see it on the news, even though I can not cry with his family, nor can I listen to the praising eulogies spoken by the loved ones of that heroic bus driver.
It doesn't make me a bad person. It doesn't mean I don't care or were living under a rock. Here in America, we make relics of everything that finds it's way into the spotlight, and so can't seem to turn away from it. What if someone or something worthy of the spotlight makes their way in, and we aren't around to see it unfold? Does it mean we care less about little boys and girls? Does it mean we don't have the fortitude to face the world? It doesn't.
When we unplug from the latest headlines, we make our already amazing families better storytellers, silly monsters, and scientists; we are better listeners to our friends—people also worthy of the spotlight We make headlines of other equally important things: something as simple as the discovery of a new freckle amidst constellations of freckles on a daughter's cheek; or something as arcane as the subtle lessons our bodies teach us daily, about blooming, aging, or dying. We are more present for so many life lessons, that when we are too plugged in to media, we rarely seek to learn.
It doesn't make me a bad person. It doesn't mean I don't care or were living under a rock. Here in America, we make relics of everything that finds it's way into the spotlight, and so can't seem to turn away from it. What if someone or something worthy of the spotlight makes their way in, and we aren't around to see it unfold? Does it mean we care less about little boys and girls? Does it mean we don't have the fortitude to face the world? It doesn't.
When we unplug from the latest headlines, we make our already amazing families better storytellers, silly monsters, and scientists; we are better listeners to our friends—people also worthy of the spotlight We make headlines of other equally important things: something as simple as the discovery of a new freckle amidst constellations of freckles on a daughter's cheek; or something as arcane as the subtle lessons our bodies teach us daily, about blooming, aging, or dying. We are more present for so many life lessons, that when we are too plugged in to media, we rarely seek to learn.
