Posts tagged Watching The News
Can You Really Forgive If You Can’t Forget?
Aug 24th
Forgiveness, a small word with a big meaning. Can people really forgive or it is just a means of carrying on with life and reducing the bitterness. I remember Angelina Jolie’s movie Changeling, which is based on a true incident, where she is looking for her son who disappears one fine day. On being confronted with the man who killed her son, she finally forgives him for killing her son. Personally, I feel it’s very difficult forgiving a person for an insult, leave alone killing your own child. For the past few days I have been watching the news on the tele. There are bereaved families from the 26/11 attack talking about what must be the apt punishment for Ajamal Qasab, the only terrorist to be caught alive. None of them said, we forgive him and he should be let off cheap.
So is forgiveness a myth. Do people really forgive? I really don’t think so. Let us get real. We live in a materialistic world and we have really low tolerance levels. We are an angry and go-getting generation. We love what we have and yearn for what we don’t. So who are we fooling when we say that we can forgive somebody who has even tried to disturb the world we live in. I call it ignoring more than forgiving or merely accepting our fate, saying to ourselves that it was meant to be. Leave the tragedies alone, in our day to day lives we feel bitter about the smallest of issues. Some feel unhappy about their parents not supporting them, others feel upset that their children don’t listen, some complain about being spoken to a certain way by their boss, some about not being able fight injustice. We all are upset about something, bitter about what has happened with us. So what is the way out when you are unable to forgive.
My principles on this issue are very simple. Don’t forgive and don’t forget, just ignore what gives you displeasure and move on with life. Life is too short to be bitter about anything. Don’t sulk and waste time on something which cannot be changed. Bad things happen to good people too. This is a fact and the biggest truth in my own life. I know it is easier said than done. But remember you call for good things in life, they will come to you. Call for all the old and ugly memories and they will keep recurring in your life. So move on. Give a damn! Think of what is important to you and what gives you happiness. Focus on that. We are not martyrs. We are materialistic and selfish beings and our life and happiness is of utmost importance. Do only what is doable. Don’t try and be jack of all trades. You can’t keep everyone happy. Once you start focusing on what is important to you, you start being happy and words like forgiving and forgetting no longer hold importance. So go on and search for own bliss….paint, play, read, travel, spend time with your loved ones, shop, decorate your home…do whatever gives you happiness…give all the negative influences a royal kick.
Stop Watching The News!
Jun 12th
Do today’s news stories make you feel sick?, Like, physically ill? It definitely makes me ill if I watch it too much, so I decided to do something about it – I stopped watching all American news. The minute you turn on any American news, even stalwarts like CNN or MSNBC, it’s nothing but scare tactics or fluff stories – there really isn’t any actual news on these stations anymore. Being bombarded with stories like this day in and day out take a toll on one’s body and mind, leaving us stressed out, panicky, worried sick or disgusted with the state of the world.
The local news is useless, filled with overarching stories that are irrelevant to you, and the national news is just hype over which Republican or Democrat had the latest affair. This is not news – it’s entertainment. Being in constant state of paralysis created by the “news” can make you sick, so I suggest you stop watching it. For good.
There are plenty of avenues for you to still know what’s really going on in the world without resorting to the standard American diet of “news”. If I am watching TV and want to know about the news, I turn on BBC News. Important stories about riots in Jamaica and Thailand, economy issues in Spain, and children being jailed in Turkey have all been on BBC News today – but not on any US news. Instead we get stories about American Idol, an actresses husband found dead, and Sarah Palin telling some random group that Obama is on heroin.
This is NOT news, it is NOISE. And it is time to free yourself from it. Check out the BBC on TV or online. Check out Al Jazeera news. Check out independent media not dependent on the ratings that come from covering scandals and hoopla. Hey, watch Comedy Central at night and at least be told up front that the news is entertainment! If you are going to ingest news, which most of us do, at least make it actual news and not scary stories that serve no purpose in your life.
The most important thing? Get your news and move on with your day.
I know people who have their TV’s on all day, so they hear the same b.s. stories morning, noon, and night…and then those same stories become their reality. Kid gets abducted 3,000 miles away? Your kid is next, so you better not let him go outside. A single person has some weird disease that has symptoms that match yours exactly? You are going to die!
You have to realize that the news, at least Americanized news, has become entertainment – and that’s about it. It’s all about ratings, money, and who can scoop the most useless story first. And it’s making us sick in the meantime because it becomes real to us. We have to stop letting it.
Stop watching it. Get what you need from actual news sources and be done for the day. I used to get pissed off and upset when watching the local news until I realized it wasn’t news at all. I still get plenty of information off the internet or the radio, but I have learned to tune out most of the irrelevant stuff. If you are feeling overwhelmed, I suggest you try it as well – it helped me immensely.
Sometimes too much information is just that, too much information…
