More and more I find myself disconnected from the world around me. The fact came home to me the other day while listening to a reporter say she had nearly fainted upon hearing that president Trump had fired the director of the FBI. Why don’t I care? I asked myself. Why is everyone on the radio making a big fuzz and I can’t seem to care either way? This lady on the radio almost made it sound like a “Kennedy moment”, as in where she was at the time she heard the news. I don’t have the answer to my question, but I think it might have to do with the amount of news. There comes a point at which I tune it out and this was the point. After that it doesn’t matter what it is, I just don’t care. Then again, I can’t recall a time when any news, except maybe the local weather, affected me, my life, or the life of family and friends in any way. And this includes what at the time was considered big news: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Challenger disaster, the collapse of the World Trade Center, the Iran-Contra affair, Watergate, and the killing of Bin Laden to name a few. Big Whoop! None of it seemed to make any difference in my life—I continued doing whatever I was doing same as always, and so did everyone else I know.
I’m not saying I’m indifferent to all of it. If forced to take I stand, I will say that I wish the wars would end today. More troops, less troops, more money or none at all will have the same result: nothing, and the Middle East will continue to be like it is until they make a change. If they don’t, their problem, only I don’t care. The Challenger accident was regrettable, and I wished it hadn’t happened, but those people knew the risk: space is anything but routine, and there’s accidents. Bin Laden could be having tea in a cave tonight for all I care. The killing of an old man never excited me before and less afterwards.
So, I’m cutting out the news altogether from my life. I don’t like to hear what today is called news anyway, and like I said, knowing any of it never made a difference to me. Besides, I don’t like self-promoting reporters, and I can’t stand hype.
I do, however, think that self-promotion and hype is okay when it comes to your own book, which I will be glad to talk about . . .