Seeing The Good Around Me: Good News

 

I try to watch the news each night so I know what is going on in the world, but it is becoming more of a struggle. I have heard several people express that they don’t watch the news because it is too depressing and I am starting to feel that way also. I have always loved keeping up with current events and even considered a career in journalism, but it now feels like a chore.

 

I counted tonight and there were 14 news stories: 12 were bad news and 2 were good news. Of the 2, one of them was shared in a glass-half-empty manner. But I was desperate for some good news so I am counting it in the “good” column. Twelve out of 14 calculates to 85.7% so I am being told that over 85% of the world around me is bad. Quantitatively, that bothers me.

 

Qualitatively, I know that the bad news in this world is horrible. But I feel like…, no, I know that there is more good going on in this world than is being told.

 

I know that right now there is a single mother or single father who is going to school on top of working and raising their family. They are fueled by the drive to provide a better life than they currently have or to model for their children how to pick yourself up when you are knocked down.

 

I know that right now there are people who have physical challenges that I don’t, and are competing in sporting events despite those. There may have been a long, frustration-filled process to learn adaptation or to use new equipment. But now they are succeeding in ways they may never had envisioned before.

 

I know that right now there is someone taking that bold first step of pursuing a dream business. Hours of planning and trying to predict all of the what-if’s have led to this and the exhilaration of seeing an idea become a concrete entity.

 

As I walk down the street, or look around in a crowd, I don’t see that 85% of it is bad. I see a lot of good around me. The bad is there, without a doubt. But there is so much good taking place as well. And, even if I don’t hear about it each evening, I can take comfort in knowing it’s there.

 

Image: https://www.ktnv.com/news/news-blogs/las-vegas-breaking-news-for-june-23-2018

 

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