The Absent Uncle: No news can be good news

I can’t watch the news.

The absent uncle is on vacation (that is a subject for a future column – stayed tuned). But while on vacation I broke a cardinal rule: Don’t watch the news. 

For he first week or so I looked at sports and other light stuff. Last night – I went into the internet and so irritated myself that my c-pap and diabetes numbers this morning convinced me that for my own good – you can’t (watch or read) the news.

OK. We all have our own viewpoints, and I am not going to tip my hand in this column on how I see things. Jill puts me on the opinion page, but I really don’t consider my opinion to be better than yours. I prefer this column to be about looking at life, sometimes agreeing, sometimes amazed, and often times disappointed. And hopefully entertaining, plus something to talk about.

But yesterday, as I perused the news of the day. I went into a funk. My wife saw it happening; she tried to cut off the internet but it was too late. 

I admit when I see those things that I don’t agree with that gets the news cycle’s attention, I get fairly well depressed. And it happened last night. Probably was bound to happen, but I just have to say – humph. 

So, what do you do when you are in a beautiful surrounding – that you chose – and then you feel so depressed, so hopeless? My result – some sleep lost. And a bit of a rant.

Can’t people just figure out that – like on the playground of their youth – everything cannot be the way you want it. That others have a differing view and are entitled to their beliefs. And those beliefs have a value, as do your own. Forcing a way of life on someone is creating a subversive force that will have to be dealt with forever.  

Does that really work? Trying to understand – it is the first step.