Film at 11

Ok...so now I'm just writing things down as I remember them.  Our society has become so globally aware that we are inundated with news from all over the globe.  I personally find it too much to cope with on any sort of regular basis.  If I was able to avoid watching the news, without taking a lot of flack from people, I would be quite happy.  But I don't seem to be able to.  What this means is that last night I watched the news and heard about a young man, only 18 years old, who left his cell phone in a taxi and used the 'find my phone' app to figure out where it was.  Great app, it told him exactly where it was and he went to retrieve it.  The sad thing is that the men who had it murdered him over it.  The phone was recovered not half a block from where he died.  I was in tears over that story.  Then there was the story of a young woman crossing the street in Vancouver pushing a baby stroller.  They were hit by a large truck and sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.  Witnesses claim the young woman was text messaging while crossing.  Further stories indicate that the woman was not the mother but the nanny, who we can only assume is now unemployed and probably no longer employable as a nanny ever again.

I have to ask how these stories affect my life.  Why do I need to know them?  They both horrified me.  They both saddened me.  But neither of them affects my life directly.  Even though the young man in London, Ontario was killed just a block from my old home at Highbury & Brydges and the young woman and child were injured just a couple of blocks from my sister's workplace, I don't know these people or probably anyone related to them or the incidents.  I feel for all involved, deeply, but I don't think I have the emotional resources necessary to watch the news.

My promise to myself is that I am no longer going to watch the news regularly.  I will peruse the CBC website and cherry-pick what I want to know about.  Instead I am going to focus on the positive things in my life.  Like yesterday when the gentleman (and he truly is a gentle man) who owns the townhouse next to us was over cutting the lawn for his tenants and very generously offered to mow ours as well.  Thank you Mr. Jawanda for mowing our lawn, thank you for being a good neighbour but most of all thank you for putting the good news back in my day!