Where is the good news?

So I have not posted in a while.  That doesn't mean that I haven't been writing or thinking, It just means that I have been reflecting on the nature of my blog.  I have 10 drafts going right now, and not a single one of them says anything really positive about life in general.

Have I turned into a bitter, cynical old curmudgeon?

No, I am actually a very happy person. For the most part.  I am happy with my life, my wife, my kids my family and friends.  I am not happy about the society I live in, my job or anything that exists outside the realm of my direct control.  Some of you would say that I have direct control over my job.  Well, yes and no.  I need the level of income I get from my servitude in a thankless industry that serves the general population of morons out there.  I could change it, but it will require upsetting the balance in the rest of my life.  So, no I don't really have control there.  I will take control in that department but not at this time.  Anyways, I am getting off topic here.

Where is the good news?  Turn on the TV, open your internet browser, go out on the town and you are bombarded by commercialism and misery. You really have to dig to find anything good happening in the world.  Every once in a while you get a nice story that makes the news; like the little boy in San Francisco who became 'Bat Boy' for a day.  In fact as I sit here writing this, that is the only bit of good news I can think of that has been publicized.  See this is what I mean, I cannot think of another good news story at all.  Nothing comes to mind, and that is what saddens me the most.  Everyone I run into on a day to day basis is generally a good person who has compassion and wants others to be happy just as he or she wants to be happy.  So then why is it all you see and hear about every day is the bad things that happen and if you are not hearing about something bad, someone is trying to sell you something.  Reflect on that for a moment as I describe my typical day.

I get up and do my usual bathroom stuff as everyone else does (I hope) so after I am all clean and fresh I put on some clothes and head downstairs with my 4 legged furry friend and take him out for his morning ritual.  It is peaceful and quiet very few other people are up at 5:30 so you can hear the birds, or the breeze or the crunch of snow underfoot, and if I am really lucky I'll get to hear one of my neighbors getting her morning nookie(good for her, you go girl!). After our walk I come back in the house and turn on the TV to the morning news show.  I don't really pay that much attention, I mainly use it as background noise as I make my lunch and breakfast.  I do want to hear what the weather is going to do as I take transit, and knowing what to dress for is rather important.

So anyways, as I listen to the news, then watch it as I eat my breakfast, all I am exposed to is how the government is squandering my tax dollars, how the people of some region have been attacked and had their lives upended by some natural disaster or some military organization.  Or you hear about some sick son of a bitch who has had his way with children or some other horrifying ordeal.

Murder, Mayhem, Destruction, Rape, Incest, Deceit, Treachery and any number of other things that humans can perpetrate on each other.  It's like reading the scary parts of the bible every morning. And I wonder why I can't seem to come up with anything positive to say.

Now that is not all.  Between all the nasty news about horrible stuff going on in the world, I get 2 minute breaks from it.  During these breaks, all the big corporations try to sell me this bauble or that. Trying to make me believe that their product will make me happy.  We are being conditioned to spend all of our money in an effort to be happy.  The cycle is endless.  Shock and awe, horror and mayhem followed by a brief advertisement for something that will make you happy and distract you from the horror you just saw or heard about.  It is especially bad this time of year as people try to spend away the misery and buy happiness from a store.  Bah Humbug.  It is the season of giving, not spending your last dime.  Give of yourself, give the gift of love and compassion.  FFS people.

So then it is time to go to work.  I don't have a problem with that, I firmly believe that one needs to render service to others in order to get something in return.  But on my commute I notice that nobody is really happy about it.  Either they are frustrated in traffic or they are stressing about a deadline or maybe they have some relationship problem at home or at work that is making them look unhappy.  I ride transit like thousands of others in this city, and happy faces are few and far between.  Nobody says anything to each other, unless they happen to already be friends.  We are all riding together, but we are all alone.  All around us are advertisements. The buses and trains are covered in ads telling us that spending our money on this or that is good for us, and better than spending it over there on that other thing. And if you don't want to look at those, there is a guy at the station handing out free newspapers so you can look at more ads and read about more misery.

Then you get to work, and everyone talks about the latest news bit.  A drunk mayor, or a typhoon that has ripped apart a nation, or the war over there, or the latest school shooting in the US. Or they talk about the professional sports team that met or did not meet performance expectations, I liken that to the commercials for smartphones or smart cars.  Sports are there to distract us and to sell us stuff.

Where the hell is all the good news!?  There must be something good happening in the world.

We should be seeing headlines in the daily paper on the FRONT page about how the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is working to eliminate malaria.  Or maybe a headline about the Dalai Lama meeting with school children in Tokyo and pointing out what has been achieved in Germany and Japan in the 60 years since the almost complete destruction of those nations during WWII.

Instead, this morning, I go to the Calgary Herald website, (and I am forced to close an advertisement to even see the headlines), I see headlines about a stabbing of an 18 year old, how the Premier has the support of her party (who really cares?), and how legalized pot in the states will cause problems for Canadian travelers.  There is nothing good in the headlines other than the opening of the SE ring road in Calgary.  But the article had nothing but negative connotations because the project was late in completion.  Every single other article is about something bad that happened.  I could not find a single good news article today.

Where is the good in life, if all we are exposed to is negative or trying to part us with our money so that companies can report record profits and make shareholders happy.

Well, there is good in life.  The good is in sharing your love with your family, making your wife smile daily, and to help out your neighbor by shoveling the snow off their front walk.  Have a good belly laugh every day, trust me, there is joy to be had if you allow yourself to experience it.  Distance yourself from negative input, surround yourself with caring, compassionate and positive people and you will find the happiness that is life.  If you cannot find positive people, stay away from the negative and get yourself a dog.  A dog, well treated, will show you what true happiness looks like and feels like.