Dear friends,
I have to make a confession.
From time to time I've become addicted to the news.
It seems there is always some crisis or another which is demanding our attention.
Our tendency might be to listen and listen again in the hope that we will see the crisis resolved.
The problem is that there is always another crisis demanding the same attention.
And on and on the addiction goes.
Good news seldom reaches the headlines and for that maybe we should be thankful.
Wouldn't it be a sad day if good news was so rare as to be a sensation?
But bad news and crises always make the headlines.
And if we find ourselves consuming a constant diet of bad news it will do us no good whatsoever.
It will waste our time and it will drain our energy.
We need to conquer any addiction that we may have to logging on mindlessly to news bulletins.
This is not to say that we bury our heads in the sand and fail to pay attention to what is going on in the world.
We need to be informed,
We need to be concerned,
We need to have our opinions.
But surely one news bulletin a day from a reliable source is sufficient to keep us abreast of what is going on.
Not many of us have the privilege or the responsibility of working to solve the problems of the world on a day to day basis.
We send our love,
Our care and our support to those who have that responsibility.
Our day to day attention will be better directed to building up our own communities,
Looking after our neighbours,
The people in need in our own area,
Spreading kindness by taking care of one another on a one to one basis.
Of course we can and we should take part in campaigns that seek to change the world for the better,
Whether through environmental action or working to encourage honesty and decency in the worlds of politics and communications.
Time taken from the news headlines can be put to good use.
And speaking of news,
There has never been a time when facts can be more easily manipulated and fake news spread.
We must take care to seek our information from sources that we know for certain to be impartial and reliable.
We must be careful not to take as gospel anything which we come across in social media.
Unfortunately social media is the easiest place in the world for fake news to spread.
Now more than ever before it is essential that we do not spread information that we do not know for certain to be true.
Remember the old recommendation?
Before passing on information we must stop and ask ourselves,
Is this true?
Is this necessary?
Is this kind?
If what we are about to pass on does not survive these three tests,
We hold our tongues,
We keep our hands away from the keyboard and we move on to deal with something which is true and which is kind.
So let's all take great care to keep ourselves well informed.
By conquering our news addiction we can save lots of time.
And we can each use the time saved contributing to the well-being of the world.
So much better than mindlessly consuming an unhealthy diet of news.
Wishing you every blessing in this endeavour.
Namaste.
