Yesterday I met with a friend I had not seen for over a month. Our lunchtime conversation led us to the dismal state of society these days. I mentioned the horrific murders of four college students in Idaho and she was completely clueless about the whole grisly mess, not having read the news lately as she's been busy renovating her new home. Her TV had not been hooked up and besides, she's an outdoors fanatic and hardly ever does anything that doesn't involve a pair of running shoes or ski poles.
Initially I was stunned that she had not heard about the crime that had dominated many news venues for the past four weeks. But then I thought, so what? How did her ignorance of something that happened to other people far from where she lives affect her life? The answer of course is that it didn't, and doesn't affect any of us except those immediately involved, yet most of us waste countless hours of our precious time here gossiping about lives that don't touch ours and never will.
Take, for example, today's headline involving actress Kirstie Alley, who died yesterday at age 71 of cancer that was recently diagnosed. Hearing it I cried, but were my tears for Kirstie or myself? I could be diagnosed with cancer any day, and I'm older! And just now I read about a new law in Indonesia banning sex outside of marriage. You can be jailed for a year if you are caught! That was upsetting, until I remembered I don't live there. (Not that I'm planning anything....)
Outside of wars and natural disasters, much of the news is little more than junk in the attic. Enough already about Donald Trump! If he, or any of those D.C. jokesters, does anything I need to know about, I'll know about it.
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