This post is probably going to make some folks mad. But I want to say what my reaction was when Hardi told me about this news story yesterday. I had been away from TV or news, in the pool, when he blundered into the "Breaking News" on the channel the fitness center runs in the cardio room. And Binghamton is in our area. Out on the edge, but it's part of our roaming territory.


"When did I sign up to follow ALL the bad news in the world?" I asked. (I meant "we" as a society.) "Yesterday it was a rape in some faraway country. Rape is terrible, of course, and global unity is a good thing I guess-- but isn't the news covering more and more crime than it used to? When did I agree to take it ALL in?"

Well, of course, I didn't. Not awarely. But by exposing myself to a certain degree of "news" coverage, I bought into their marketing plan to harness my compassion for their advertisers. There's something sucky about that, something sick, something WAY beyond my reasons for tuning in.

I gotta find a limit there! I have to find my boundary. If I am going to respond to any of these situations, or to any similar ones, I have to create the opportunity for balance. I have to redraw the menu of news inputs and the menu of perspectives I intentionally hold before I let all this toxicity in.

I don't want thicker skin. I want thin, responsive skin, guided by wisdom and intentionality. I cannot allow media marketing imperatives dull my thin skin, or grow it thicker.

~Susan