Cancel the Appointment

 

                  “I know the world’s being shaved by a drunken barber. I don’t need to 

                   read about it.”     - From the film Meet John Doe

 

I’ve never been a big fan of reading newspapers or watching the news. And knowing how doing so never made me happy, I wondered why so many do. Here is a whole industry devoted to the shining the light on the worst of humanity, accenting nature’s unpredictable upheavals, thriving on disaster, entirely uninterested in the miracles of human goodness I witnessed daily in my music classroom. Why make a daily appointment to sit in that barber’s chair?

 

Well, I know as a citizen I’m responsible for a certain amount of knowing “what’s going on” and in the old days, I’d glance at newspaper headlines and my parents would spend 30 minutes or so with Walter Cronkite and the 6 o’clock news. But somewhere around the 90’s or so, 24-hour-news was TV’s preferred venue, a mammoth beast that once created, needed to be fed. So its appetite—and ours— became voracious and insatiable, organized into an entire corporation of drunken barbers working around the clock. Like that old folk tale “The Clay Pot Boy,” it devoured everything in its path and grew larger and larger. Then came the Internet and now the pings are pinging every 10 seconds with the “news” you neither want nor need and following us everywhere. And while having a few corporate executives deciding where to aim the camera was not ideal, now everyone had one and it became increasingly difficult to tell the “real” from the “fake”. 

 

What is the effect on us consumers pulled into the vortex of the constant tornado of news? Mostly that life is to be feared, people are horrible, hope is a hoax. It beats us down, feeds our cynicism, dismantles our optimism. Despair manufactured for a tidy profit wins and we all lose. 

 

But the whole show is built on us tuning in, leaving the phone on to be pinged, sitting down in that barber chair. What if we refuse? What would happen?

 

Here’s some advice from Akaya Windwood, someone on Facebook who I’ve never met, but am mightily impressed by her insight, eloquence and courage:

 

I’m done with wringing my hands, gnashing my teeth, and clutching my pearls. 

Every time I engage in these behaviors I relinquish power. I become centered in someone else’s story, and lose track of what’s true for me and everything I care about. I become a puppet of those whose intentions are to rattle, to sow doubt, and to render hopelessness. No more - I’m done. 

So I’m going to take heart again, and take huge audacious leaps of faith in our common humanity, purpose, and resilience. We are in a time of great transformation, and I know that we have everything we need. We actually are ready for this - our ancestors have our backs, and our descendants are cheering us forward. Grab hands with a cousin/pal/neighbor (even if you don’t know them yet) and let’s all go together. 

 

We have everything we need. 

 

Let’s remember that the Earth revolves around the Sun, which is our magnificent, beneficent, and eternal source of life. I call that Love, and it is our birthright. 

 

That’s the only real truth I know. My heart to yours.

 

Amen to all of that.