Sorry I can’t come to the phone right now. I’m busy looking
for some good news. If you are calling about the deportation of four-year olds
press one, about civilian bombing press 2, parched crops press 3, gang mayhem
press 4, voter-suppression press 5.
The morning paper is replete with killings, corruption,
kidnappings and man-made cataclysms. The Internet agrees. Cable News can’t get
enough of the latest disaster. The array of prize-winning mini-series are
varieties of villainy. We traffic in treachery, carnage and apocalyptic
dystopia. The mirror is cracked. The game is rigged. We are a failed experiment.
No news might be all I could hope for. But no news requires
a sensory deprivation tank. Or a life watching 1940 films on T.C.M. Let me
check the obits; maybe some bad guy died.
On my Big Rock candy
mountain the bull dogs all have rubber teeth and hens lay soft-boiled eggs.
Is that a Good-Humor truck I’m hearing or somebody’s cell phone? I don’t know
any drug dealers, molesters or double-agent urban guerrillas. I’ve never met a religious zealot. I only
associate with humanists. I hope never to go to lunch with a suicide bomber nor
be sitting next to a drone target.
Good news is not to be found in the macro yet it abounds in
the micro. There’s a hummingbird nest in our parking garage. Local streets are
lined in yellow ribbon with gold medallion trees. The library book I thought
was overdue was, in fact, renewable. Peaches from 3 days ago have finally
ripened. One of these weeks the honeydew I bought last month might also be
edible.
Two birthdays have happened in recent weeks. Barbara is a lovable, rare, uncensored
nose-in-book with still un-cut pages. Even her blurts are adorable. Ralph is
the guy I call when I have nothing to say and he has nothing to say and
together we talk for 40 minutes about the nothing that is everything while
artfully choreographing our steps to avoid the topic we don’t dare mention.
How is it possible for individuals to be so noble, generous,
even-tempered and forgiving yet so scheming, vengeful and vitriolic as an
aggregate? It seems there is a beast within us ready to spring if the tribe
gives it legitimacy.
Wait…here’s something on page AA2 that could be a ray of
hope for our species. The Pentagon (of all places) has developed a prosthetic
brain-enhancer which can stimulate cognition and retrieval. Anything for
Parkinson patients to by-pass damaged areas and bridge gaps in neural circuitry
is all for the good but I’m not so sure about lost memories. Given our record
up to now we might be better off forgetting.
Still, your call is very important to me. If you have any good news please leave your message after the beep; otherwise leave it before the beep.
Still, your call is very important to me. If you have any good news please leave your message after the beep; otherwise leave it before the beep.
See http://www.happynews.com/
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that they say optimism is a mood. I can't always influence that on demand but at a minimum stop reading the paper. It's depressing.
ReplyDeleteThat said, major tragedies go unnoticed and easily dismissed and yet the small things in my life, the bumps in the journey, seem to be the end of the world. If I could be drawn to minimize my own tribulations in life that would be helpful. The alternative is disproportionate reaction. It’s all quite unnecessary when I can partake in the pleasures at a dog park.
My good news note we found a stray dog a home today. We found him Thursday, a Treeing Walker Hound, very sweet dog but doesn’t fit our lifestyle to keep and a lady very pleased with his disposition was happy to foster and possibly adopt. A dog found a home. That is optimistic.
Diana