To Each His Own When It Comes to Current Events

I keep up with current events probably to a fault. I need news, sports and weather up to the minute. Hell, I’m looking at a radar right now following afternoon thunder storms.

On this last trip to St Croix I was really unplugged for most of the week. Normally I don’t like this, but this time was different.

I forgot about the Presidential race and all the mud slinging and politics. I was immune from all the bad weather in the states, what could I do about the weather anyway? The financial markets…who cares, and it doesn’t matter. Diesel at $4.80…who cares. Did the Carolina Panthers trade anyone? All the local murders, traffic congestion, code orange pollution alerts, and local politics were 1800 miles away.

My nephew had taken over the only TV for video games so we didn’t even watch a minute of TV.

Broad band or dial up was non existent where I was. I checked my email once. The world kept turning without me.

I dropped my cell phone in the water. No worries, I didn’t really need to talk to anyone unless I was standing in front of them.

I couldn’t listen to my regular Charlotte News and Talk radio station.

I was completely and totally disconnected from all of my regular news sources that concerned me.

What is ironic is many island folks brag about their isolation and their insulation to the stress and worries in the states. They pretend to live in a blissful world unaffected by current events and sometimes even hold out our worldly worries as silly.

I have become keenly aware however that news related stress is necessary wherever you live.

Down on the island the passionate talk is of WAPA (Water and Power Authority), the development of land for casinos, the corruption in local government, crime, pollution, etc. All of the local island news is discussed with the same passion and concerns of my local, national news, and financial news.

The news topics in St Croix are different but the stress is the same, maybe more. So does current event stress need to be generated for the human spirit no matter where you live? Even on a tropical island?

I am back home now and the worries of the island are back on the island.

Let me open my paper… CONCORD -- Police were continuing the search Friday night for a man who fatally shot two people at the Sun Drop Bottling Co. in Concord in what may have been a botched robbery. Hey…that is just down the road from me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I stay kind of blissfully ignorant when it comes to current events. I worry too much, and if I'm too on top of things, it just causes too much anxiety.

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

I am paid to keep up with current events, especially national and international news because it affects my industry. So, I am accumtomed to staring at the news even right now.

Okay...I am watching the US Open drinking a beer.

My blog friends give me a reprise.