To Watch or Not Watch The News During A Pandemic
Written in the wee hours of the morning on April 22nd in my journal.
The news every morning is a staple in our routine, pandemic or not, and so because we are trying with all our might to keep a sense of normality in our Aspen condo, we continue to watch–as we do in the evenings, same bat time on the same bat channel.
But this morning, I am just questioning all of it. The news of the day these days is no fun to hear. It's just a ball of sh*t's hitting the fan again. I have been finding myself wondering if we shouldn't watch it anymore, but then I also wonder if that's just because we humans just don't like bad news. Drama is one thing, bad news is another.
Before this pandemic, it wasn't a cake walk. The news was constantly trying to draw out stories, regardless of the channel or the angle. A 24 hour age of news lends itself to that sort of thing. I mean, you have to have news for 24 hours a day...and let's be honest, that just isn't feasible. So they make it work in the ways they see fit. And a lot of times, we lose. I'll tell you that I was probably a little too ok with the news before, regardless of what I just said about it. The news wasn't particularly good to hear all the time, but it seemed more or less in a vacuum. Now, that's not the case.
The truth is IT IS BAD RIGHT NOW. Our whole world is affected by this, suffering from it, and because of that, there is literally no way to escape. On a regular day with a typical crisis, there would be somewhere we could all pick up and go if we just had to get out of our circumstances. We could dodge way more easily. We could travel or even move away from something if necessary.
Not in this pandemic. Where we are is where we must stay. It's sobering.
So again, I ask myself--Am I putting my head in the sand if I avoid the news right now? Or is it the more responsible thing to do to watch?
As usual, it's probably a little bit of portion control.