(This post is part of a series of daily letters from me to my future children reporting from the emerging paradigm.)
Dear Kids:
I stopped listening to or consuming the news in September, 2016. I had been slowly realizing that the news felt as toxic to me as I once experienced diet and weight loss ads. I think it was the swift uptick in hearing the voice of then candidate Donald Trump and the fascination with the horse race but not the actual issues of the election.
I don’t live in a special bubble with no news. I do still connect to friends and have enough smart folks in my life that the right information comes across my path. I read articles from trusted news sources if I think it will benefit me or I have curiosity. I watched the murder of George Floyd because a trusted journalist friend posted the link to CBS news.
If I really need to know something there are folks who know to directly communicate that to me.
There’s a very small percentage of the information shared on the news of something I “need” to know. In fact, there’s way more than you can possibly consume of news available and most of it is designed to scare you so they can sell more advertising.
I bring this up simply because I found myself craving news recently. Mostly about the pandemic and the mounting death tolls, the record setting days of new Corona cases many of the early re-opened states are posting. Florida’s caseload went up so much it’s more than 1,900% in a week.
I got curious about what was happening because re-opening feels so unwise. I have so much privilege to work from home, I obviously don’t have my event income which has been a hardship, but I have intentionally shifted my focus to things I can do online.
I truly wonder about the people who are going to restaurants and bars, who are partying on Fire Island and who are putting themselves and others at risk.
This is like a group project we all started and a lot of us are wondering why so many people got up from the table. I wonder do they feel invincible? Do they think this is made up? I understand people needing to go back to work and I don’t judge them, but I am really curious about the partiers. And I say this as someone who was dubbed the “Plus Size Party Girl” by Time Out New York. I get partying, I love to socialize. But not if it risks death or serious injury to me or others.
Is death not serious to people? There’s a quote that roughly goes, “Tough times create tough people, tough people create good times, good times create weak people, weak people create tough times.”
Anyway, that’s what’s on my heart today. A genuine and rare desire to consume the news to gain more understanding about what the effects are of the capricious attitudes of a few folks.
I think the majority of people are still staying home. But with talk of opening schools again in just a little over a month that feels like another spike waiting to happen.
I guess we’ll see. I’m still living my life with the optimistic attitude that I’ve seen the end of the movie and we win. If we haven’t won, it’s not the end.
xoxo,
Bevin
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