No news is... no news.

Rome - 041711

I gave up following the news for Lent.  I used to listen to NPR for at least 2 hours per day, read numerous news and opinion websites and followed other sources of information as well.   For the past few weeks my only news sources have been what friends tell me, what I get from NPR's game show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and the occasional Daily Show with Jon Stewart or Colbert Report.

Here are the big things I missed.  Charlie Sheen craziness.  Japan's tragic earthquake and tsunami, the budget wars, some Wisconsin state supreme court race, rising gas prices, and more culture wars.  I've learned a few things.  I really don't need to know every bit of news concerning most every topic in the world.  So many of them are beyond my power and really have no impact on me, nor I on them.  As Paul Simon wrote in the song, The Only Living Boy in New York:

I get the news I need on the weather report.
I can gather all the news I need on the weather report.
Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile.
Da-n-da-da-n-da-da-n-da-da here I am
The only living boy in New York

Half of the time we're gone but we don't know where,
And we don't know where.

Here I am..........

I can't help Charlie Sheen and by following every drop of news about him, I am only feeding the frenzy.  I can't do anything about the budget.   I heard about Japan's tragedy through friends and I can help by sending donations to the Red Cross, but I didn't need the news to help me figure that one out.  As for gas prices, I really can't do a thing about that except try to use less of it.

Come Easter Sunday, I will get out from under my news-free rock and start learning about the world.  I know I need to keep current with the world, but not at the expense of too much "currency".  This "currency" is sanity, lack of influence, helplessness, depression, and too many things that have nothing to do with me.