A small dose of perspective can bring a moment of peace...

If you listen to just about any news program these days, you will likely hear at least one of the commentators say something like this:

"This is the WORST____________we have EVER witnessed in our lifetimes!"

or

"NOTHING like this has EVER happened before in the history of _________!"

Yeah, right...

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The other day, I was in our staff workroom making copies and checking email. While I was waiting for the copier to finish, I caught a few minutes of the latest "news". In just that brief amount of time, I could feel my muscles tense up. The extra news crawls along the bottom of the screen, the whooshing sounds, and flashy graphics made me dizzy. I could feel the acid in my stomach begin to churn, and yet, I found myself watching the TV screen to see what would happen next.

Up until that point in my day, I had been in a good mood, but now I was suddenly sad for the people on the screen. They were people in a bad situation, and I felt for them, but I could do nothing for them except say a prayer and then go about my day. I thought about the fact that their situation could be my situation, and I left the workroom with more than my copies. I had picked up a small dose of fear and frustration along the way.

After a while, I was back at work, feeling calm and cheery. As I was sitting at my desk, I could hear one of my coworkers say, "Oh, no, did you hear what happened to that child and their family in___________?" Once again, my heart sank. I looked over to see their computer screen showing the sad headlines of the latest tragic story to hit the web.

At the end of the day, I sometimes catch my local news. I mainly want to watch the weather report. Before it comes on, however, we must see the slow mo videos of our local folks gone bad on their way to the jailhouse and find out about the discovery of another meth lab in our county. Combine this with our newpaper's weekly crime blotter report, and you have a recipe for paranoia with a side order of the heebie jeebies!


I'd venture to say that many of us these days try to be informed about our world and our communities. We want to know what's going on so that we can stay safe and help others if possible. Our news reporters have lots of time to fill, and they have many ways to bring us the latest information.

As more and more voices compete for our attention, many resort to the loudest, scariest, and most sensational way to do so. They can be intense, so it can leave us tense and unable to cope with the information overload. For us to remain relaxed, we must put things into a more proper perspective.


Lately, I have been reading many historical non-fiction books and listening to educational podcasts online. The topics have ranged from the history of the Byzantine Empire, of Japan, of the Americas before Christopher Columbus, of Russia, to the biography of the life of Napoleon. I've also read several books about the life of famous pirates and of their infamous exploits at sea.

No matter what the time period, location, or the people involved, I've learned the following:

1. Sadly, in all time periods and locations, bad stuff has happened, and often times, it happens to decent, everyday people. All over the world throughout history, disasters strike, disease wipes out populations, people can be mean to others, corruption and ignorance can be found in any society, and governments grapple with each other and with those they govern.

2. All throughout time and around the world, people have had to deal with stuff like doing chores, paying taxes, earning a living, raising children, trying to stay alive, and fending off dangers.

3. Chances are, the things we see and hear about in today's news have happened before, just not to us.

4. History books, like the news of today, usually tell us about a certain person or group when describing a significant event. We often forget that, while that event was happening, most of the people in the world were having a perfectly good day.

5. All throughout history, good stuff happens, too. People have raised families, discovered great knowledge, created wonderful inventions, art, and music, and made significant contributions to society.

6. By studying history, we can learn from the mistakes of the past. We can also think about our current events in a different way by comparing them to historical events.

7. Just as it would be impossible for one person to learn all the history of the world and read all the history books they could find, it is impossible for a person to keep up with all the news sources and stories that bombard us each day.

For your own sanity and sense of peace, don't even try to keep up with much of it at all! Take your news in small doses from now on. We do well enough to keep up with our everyday problems than to try to take on those of the whole world! Remember to focus on the positive and practical things you can do to help yourself and others around you.

Many of the people in the news these days are there because they snap under the pressure of stresses in their life. They act irrationally. They become desperate, confused, and do things that only make the situation worse.

I think we all need to recognize what triggers our own stresses and learn healthy ways to calm ourselves before things get out of control. Putting things into a historical perspective helps me to do that. Go on a news diet. Limit your viewing to a point where you can be informed without becoming infirmed!

Remember:

Laughter, sprirituality, beauty, and love abound in the world. It is all around you. Just take time to notice it. :)