F ³: Going On A Treasure Hunt

 

My mother-in-law checks the news on her iPad each morning. It’s rare that she finds anything there that doesn’t depress her or make her angry. 

I know exactly how she feels.

“Isn’t there any good news?” she asked me the other day. 

“There probably is, but that’s not what the news outlets are feeding you,” I suggested. “They’re highlighting the stories that they think will make you click.”

Isn’t there any good news?

Her plaintive request gnawed at me. I started looking.

You can do a Google search for “good news stories today.” I got about a page of websites to check.  One of them, the Goid News Network, put me onto stories like the following:

• Bruce Springsteen Celebrates His New Center for American Music Opening Soon with All-Star Concert for the Ages
• Heartwarming ‘Sock-er’ News: Arsenal Donates Old Football Socks to Sick Horses and Donkeys
• US Nonprofit Again Wipes Out Millions in Hospital Bills–This Time for 97,000 Residents of Connecticut

I don’t really know much about the Good News Network but they seem to be legit.

You probably won’t be surprised that, by far, my favorite search was “odd news stories today.” May I recommend the following website:

Odd news, funny news, strange news - - UPI

This is where you will find stories like:

• Teen assembles Mr. Potato Head in record-breaking 4.63 seconds
• World's largest blanket fort constructed in Las Vegas
• Six loose sheep wander through South Carolina Neighborhood 

I don’t know if someone has said this already, but, here goes:

People just leave good news strewn around any old place, but bad news will beat a path to your doorstep. 

The internet and social media have compounded this. Bad news, cheap news, lurid news is the junk food of our age. They don’t provide a balanced mental diet for our brains. We’ve been seeing for quite some time what watching only one news outlet - - which pushes only that kind of “news” - - does to people’s brains and, sadly, to their lives. 

This is why some days you just need a little accordion. 

Isn’t there any good news?

Yes, there is. And we need to make sure we are getting some every day, or we will lose a part of what makes us human. 

Village Green/Town² Comments