Nonviolent Cow | DiaryOfAWorm / Good News Heals, Bad News Hurts

Sometimes the sadness, suffering, violence, despair of life and my own frailty and faults are overwhelming. There seems to be nothing I can do about it yet do not want to sink more into hopelessness. At these times something seems to come along, if I am looking for it, to show me the way out, at least for now.

Tonight it was an email with an article from Frida Berrigan called A Place Where It Is Easier To Be Good. I was blessed to have met Frida once at a Catholic Worker event and to have known, in the past, her father, Phil Berrigan and her uncle, Dan Berrigan. She talks about her experience living at the Catholic Worker House, Maryhouse, in NYC and how that experience was a real education for her. She writes:

“Dozens of times, I have seen people ask my uncle Dan for a recipe to stave off despair and hopelessness in the face of almost inexorable pain, suffering, institutional callousness and inertia. I think they are looking for the next Catonsville Nine, the next Occupy, the next Pay it Forward, the catalytic thing that will change everything. He does not play this game. He does not prescribe actions for others. Rather, he speaks very simply. He says that he only reads the New York Times about once a week, and he pours over the Catholic Worker newspapers that come in from around the country and the world.

Reading about the modest efforts of earnest, real and imperfect people to care for their neighbor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, care for the sick, bury the dead in their midst, to see Christ in each person — this is the news that lifts his heart and gives him the strength to keep going.”

This is the second time this week a wise person has told me how he watches very little news and seeks out all the good things that are happening around him.

Being a news addict I can see how ‘too much information’ on what is happening, like the second bombing of Syria by Israel today, violent accidents and acts, the destruction of our public school system is just too much if I am trying to be sensitive to life around me. I can even go back to walking through life asleep and cut back in the bad news and focus on the good news, like the new flowers in the rain garden. News addictions like any other addiction feeds on itself. I do not think I can go cold turkey but can clearly cut back. In the news watching time I can read, reflect or, like a Catholic Worker be with persons struggling to survive. Less bad news might mean more awareness and perspective on what is really happening in my life and world around me. It will take some discipline but it is worth a try. Good news heals while bad news hurts.

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From Nonviolent Cow

DiaryOfAWorm: Good News Heals, Bad News Hurts

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