There is a prayer about having the strength to change the things you can, the patience to endure the things you can not, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two.
So what am I doing? Mostly avoiding the news. There are lots of things happening that I can not change, fussing about them only hurts me. Stupidity and evil fill fail on their own. I find this encouraging.
I was in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC one day last week. There was a special exhibit of early impressionist works from the 1870's in Paris. The exhibition talked about and showed Paris in distress. And thinking about it Paris has been tested a couple of times in the last 100 years. And yet the good and beauty recovered. We may be moving into a period of distress, but in the long run, the beauty will prevail. I somehow found the recovery of Paris, encouraging.
Like many of you, I am still fragile. It is easy to worry about the future, especially as one who has studied the past. But the long picture of the past is encouraging. Evil falls and fails of its own accord. I am focused on encouraging others to put one foot in front of the other, moving forward one step at a time, one day at a time, into a future of our making.
Like you, I'm not watching any news hardly. And may not for some time. Might make me ignorant...but I don't need my blood pressure affected or worry about things out of my control. My tip helped set things right, and then met up with another blogger in Philly this weekend....so that helped brighten my mood more.
ReplyDeleteMy trip helped!!!!!
DeleteWhere is Dr Freud?
DeleteI’m just barely keeping up on the news. I’m never as positive as you when it comes to this. I figure the world will probably survive but I worry about all the suffering to come in the meantime. Not everyone will survive. Uf! Since I can’t manage to find my way the way you do, I’ll go back to not thinking about it momentarily.
ReplyDeleteBest to stay distracted. Explore a museum this week?
DeleteA good possibility!
DeleteI'm rationing my news viewing so as not to wallow in fear and despair, but I still need to know what's basically going on in the world so as not to be a complete ostrich. We do need to keep one eye on those bastards.
ReplyDeleteNever let the bastards win.
DeleteI watch some news, but once I get the gist I'm done.
ReplyDeleteI rant, but once I've said my piece, I'm done.
We have guests coming for Friendsgiving so I'm all about cooking and hosting and cleaning and such!
Throw a great party.
DeleteThat's a good way to look at things. I'm doing the same. I see just enough news to know what's going on but I'm avoiding the daily dose I used to get.
ReplyDeleteThe Washington Post, has a news article today, about people avoiding the news. I just glanced at the headlines.
DeleteI have 2 newsletters that post to my email each day: New York Times and Heather Cox Richardson. They sum up what is going on and that's about all I need to see right now. I have to know what is going on but I don't want to wallow in the worry.
ReplyDeleteWorry gets us nowhere, slowly and painfully.
DeleteThat's about all one can do.
ReplyDeleteI feel that I am healing a little at a time.
DeleteI went to small aquarium. They want no flash. So I had to ask for help. I didn't know how to turn off the flash. My son laugh at me. Because I'm so techie slow.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first things I do, is find how to turn off the flash, on the rare occasion that I need it, I have to search to figure out how to turn it back on. On my Nikon it is easy, one click on a dial, one click in the other direction is programed to black and white images.
Delete