It’s habit for most of us to begin our day with a kind of ritual that we’ve established over the years. I myself am an early riser, and I look forward to brewing a fresh pot of coffee, retrieving the newspaper from the front porch, and settling back into “my special chair” for a thorough reading of what’s new, what’s hot, and what’s not. On some days I find an article of substance that engages me immediately–mind, heart and soul, but these days are rare indeed. On most day’s I find myself scanning the paper’s pages from front to back, and just catching sight of the headlines brings me our of a mellow morning fog and into a state of all-too-familiar anxiety. This morning habit, this ritual, may not be good for my overall health. Read at your own risk.
Let me provide and example of the current day. Today is Wednesday, November 18, and with my first stirrings of the morning, and the ritualistic trek from bedroom to kitchen, my mind was occupied with personal matters, family matters, and running through my schedule for the day. Pleasant thoughts, neutral at their very worst, and then a screening of the local newspaper.
Front page news cautioned women not to take yesterday’s news about their health very seriously. Yesterday, a panel of doctors were advised against mammograms under age 50; today, local doctors refute this view, and caution women to continue with their early screenings. Impact on me? Uncertainty! The next page reported on the ongoing investigation of an 82 year-old local icon known for his years of philanthropy and community leadership….but reportedly caught on videotape fondling a 13 year-old girl in a local hotel. Yesterday’s hero is today’s pariah! Impact on peace of mind? Anxiety! Next, a reporting on a fourteen year-old boy accused of fondling and murdering a 4 year-old girl. Impact on me? Depression. And so it continues, page after page.
On some mornings, this ritual of “keeping up with the news” is so overwhelming to my emotional health that I simply fold the paper back into its “unread position” and lay it down on the floor. I lean back in my chair, with eyes closed, and allow the images to float through my mind as I refocus on what matters in life and what will be important for me that day. And the images of the news eventually crystallize into some form of prayer.
I already hear my critics asserting cliche’s such as “If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen,” or “It’s people like you who keep their heads in that sand who are contributing to the neglect that underlies these very human tragedies. To these types of critics, I say, “bring it on.” Were I to stop at the point of simply pushing the news away, then I would agree with you. But my conscience won’t allow me to stop there. Instead, I continue my morning ritual of inviting the events of the world into my home and hearth, and then I spend an even greater amount of time running these same events through my mind, in an attempt to integrate them into the values and themes that make up who I am, at my essence. Yes, I wish the world were different, but it’s not. And yes, I wish human nature would daily celebrate the invisible people who do nothing so sensational as to “make the news”, but live honest, if not mundane, lives. But the world isn’t so, and humans will always have a blood lust for tragedies, if not down right evil.
So, I encourage us all to read the daily newspaper, and to use it as a basis for that day’s life of prayer. Read your local newspaper. But do so at your own risk.
