I refuse to watch the news. Some might think that makes me a bit immature….living with my head in a cloud refusing to have an awareness of all the horrible things going on around me in our state, country and world. But I do have an alternative…I pray. Refusing to watch the news doesn’t mean I’m not aware of the wars being fought, the people dying, suffering or being mistreated in ungodly ways….I just have this part of me that’s wired wrong….I can’t watch or listen to stories about these things without breaking down in a blubbering sob. I tried listening to news radio once, as I was driving…and within three minutes I had pulled over on the side of the road sobbing into my steering wheel over a heard of goats that had been taken out to sea in Oregon during a horrible storm. After a police officer pulled over to ask me if I was okay, I decided on that day that news radio would be deleted from my preset buttons. So I simply pray, daily, for all of the heartbreaking things I should probably be more aware of. I know they are out there….but I know a God who is bigger.
Now, I have tried an alternative method of staying up to date on a story or two…by checking sites such as NBC.com’s section of “weird news.” The Huff Post also shares some unbelievable stories. I will say, however, that some of these headlines leave me so speechless that I catch myself in a horrible state of worry over the world my child is growing up in. One of today’s headlines, for example–“Philadelphia Jesus Baptizes Tourists in Love Park.” I perused another interesting article about a man who woke up from a coma thinking that he was Matthew McConaughey. After months of rehab, he is now training to become a barber. I then moved on to a nice little article about a Middle School teacher being fired after taking some of her students for a ride in the trunk of her car. I’m really glad I read that one….being a teacher myself, I am now aware that this behavior is frowned upon.
To go along with my fear of the “real” news, I also refuse to participate in anything made-up, specifically by Hollywood movie makers, that depicts the death or potential harm of an animal. I won’t watch a Western….because, dammit, every time those opposing cowboys approach each other, someone’s horse goes all haywire and falls down to the ground. I know, I know….professional trainers are supposedly involved. But if YOU weighed 1,500 pounds and you fell to the ground on your side like that, reckon it would hurt??? Show me a DVD case with a dog on it, and I run away like a snake is after me. A dog in a movie?? Chances are it’s going to die, or at least get it’s feelings hurt really bad. Unacceptable.
So yeah, I’ll stay in my bubble and just enjoy news captions such as this:
Kickin' & Screamin' 