Dear reader,
I want to share with you a long-term protest that I have about something very common in life. Should you be a person who watches the news, reads the paper and generally likes to keep up-to-date on current affairs, well, you have my sympathy – and my warning.
In my opinion, the news you read is 95% bad-to-terrible and only 5% good and uplifting. Why is that? After all, the actual percentage is quite the opposite.
Take a break-up of a marriage of two famous actors – it’s all over the news! I doubt you know though, that there are many more stable marriages amongst the same class of people. You don’t know that because it is not reported.
The idea that only shocking, bad, or devastating news sells, is the crazy and degraded belief that goes around the news-making machine. And who suffers? The innocent reader who is interested in what’s going on in the world.
I suggest you test this out. Listen to the news and read the paper and see how you feel after having done so. Nine times out of ten, whether it reported death, grief, hardship or financial worry, you end up feeling worse than when you started, and generally more anxious about life.
Yet on that same day all over the world there are endless amounts of people experiencing the many joys of life. Whether from good deeds done, happy moments shared, or lives saved. It could be from the achievement of a purpose strived for, the bettering of one’s lot or the smile of a baby. Or perhaps even falling in love. I could fill a page with the possible joys involved with living.
From Australia to England and every corner of this world, I bet you there are many, many, more smiles than tears.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that life is one tough game to play; much tougher for some than others.
However, what would you think of a person whose job was 95% made up of sniffing out the worst, the saddest, and the most terrifying news, then making sure as many people as possible know about it? Crazy, no?
Try to search out happier news and see how you feel about your life. You might be surprised to know how many good people there are and how much good work is going on.
So, as 2019 gets going, I do hope you strive to make this year a great one.
Go on and enjoy life like you mean it!
Mark Kloss
