Today

Today was definitely a better or worse day than yesterday. I haven’t read political news in about 2 or 3 days, and I’ve noticed that I’m worrying quite a bit less. I have found that taking periodic political news moratoria is necessary to maintain my sanity. I have a tendency to obsess about political news, over and over and over again. I find that I am stuck reading it many many times throughout the day. Reddit Politics, Google News, and even the New York Times — it’s all basically the same to me. I do want to remain informed, but it’s kind of hard to remain informed and not get sucked in to the drama. There is so much drama — I think the news brings up the drama because that’s what people read.

We aren’t going to read articles about happy puppies or cute birds, even though those things do make us happy. But nothing sells newspaper subscriptions like drama, like the problems with the world. And it is important to understand the problems with the world, but spending every day ruminating on them isn’t really the best way to keep up with the world. So I periodically say, “I’m not going to read political news for the next two weeks,” and I’m pretty good at sticking to it once I make a commitment. And I gradually feel my head clearing.

It’s kind of funny — when I first read political news after taking 2 or 4 weeks off, it all seems so ridiculous. Life can be pretty damned ridiculous. I don’t really want the drama, and it seems kind of stupid. But then I gradually end up getting sucked back in. They know how to make the crack so that we keep wanting more and more and more of it. And before I know it, I’m being sucked in. So the best policy is frequent abstention. If I don’t waste time, I have so much time to do other things. Maybe I will go on a time wasters moratorium starting tomorrow. I have a lot of things I want to know, and admittedly rather little time. Got to make the most of it.