Bad News

I’m asking myself – how come I usually feel depressed after reading the newspapers in the morning?

And I’m answering myself – it’s gotta be the news.

So I did a survey. I went through the articles in today’s front section of the NY Times and assessed them – good, bad and neutral. There were 52 stories. I found 6 were good news, 18 were neither good nor bad, and 28 I’d classify as bad news.

There you go. Who wouldn’t be depressed after spending an hour or two ingesting and digesting wars, bombings, murders, hard times, terrorism, bad health, endless partisan wrangling, scoundrels and even early winter storms?

A fair question would be: “If you know what you’re doing is going to depress you, why do it?” I should know better. I point out in my book, “Look With The Heart,” that Rita Mae Brown tells us the definition of insanity is “Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.”

Trouble is, knowing better doesn’t change my behavior. I’m as news junkie. Have been as long as I can remember. I like to know what’s going on, whether I like what I’m hearing or not. I could argue that it’s the fault of the media. They should focus on good as well as bad news. But I know that won’t happen. Bad news gets people’s attention. Bad news sells.

That's it. I won’t change. They won’t change. It won’t change. We’re codependent addicts. End of story.

By the way, did you hear about what happened with . . .