So, I'm doing better. I'm really motivated to get some things done, make that final push to the end and be more active with the FRG duties I've taken on, get my house in order and prepare for Terry to get home (3-4 months, not that I'm counting. Right.)
Anyway, one of the side effects of this deployment is that I can't watch the news. My body physically reacts to the stress that seeing bad news inflicts on me. Isn't that weird? I get tics in my eye, numbness in my face and headaches. I can count on it when I see another bombing or hear about bird flu. I just have to not watch the news at all, since you never know what's coming. I even changed my homepage from MSN to something else because I always caught the headlines. So I say all this because I feel like I live in a cocoon now! I want to know about the news that is going to affect me you know? Ok, so it's mostly the weather and I can get that online, but it brings up the debate about what's newsworthy.
We all complain about the negativity of the news, but we all know we need to know some of those negative things too. And by the time we've seen too much, it's too late. This discussion in my head led me to thinking about news like the genocide going on in Darfur. I don't want to turn away from these stories because it's like saying, "I don't care."
If I'm anything, I'm compassionate. It's the one emotion I can always count on and it's served me well in this deployment. It puts my life in perspective and I don't want to be sheltered from news/issues that I care about or can actually DO something about you know?
And you can't talk about bad news like death and destruction and wonder how in the world we can watch shows like CSI, or movies like Titanic, Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List (saw in three times). I'm strictly limited to Survivor, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and other reality shows I will have to confess to on another post. I can't find enjoyment in death, crime and natural disasters anymore - real or not.
Right now I do have to survive emotionally so I've turned off the negativity for now. I breeze through my national and local sections in the paper to the Style, Food or Weekend sections, but it's hard. How much do YOU want to know about your world? How much can we take on?
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6 comments:
I'm glad to hear you're doing better, MQ. 3-4 months will be over before you know it! :)
My best friend's husband is in Tikrit and can't watch the news either. Sometimes I take in too much news, which makes me really anxious, and then I need to do a "news fast," which can help. At that point I read a book or watch an escapist movie.
I was okay with the news. I didn't like MSM (still don't most days) so I also started reading milblogs and Michael Yon's site.
My folks always came to me with some story but only 1/2 the facts concerned that it was right on top of where the spouse was. After the third time of this I started watching the news more so I could correct them and keep me from getting grey hairs!
Hang in there! When the deployment ends your will probably not even remember he was gone! That first glance, hug, kiss . . . leaving together to go home. Chin up and please don't stop blogging . . . love to read what you and the boys are up to. By the way, Navy guys are hot in that photo . . .
I started reading The Economist, because every week I can get a global picture of what's going on. Plus, I like their writing style, 3/4 facts and 1/4 opinion. It hasn't made my outlook any better, as all it's taught me is that the world is crap, but at least I'm better informed now.
You all brought a tear to my eye, especially my milwives who know exactly what this is like. I know the last few months will fly, but honestly we just had death in our unit, someone in my hubby's battalion here in the states actually (you know they're all spread out over in Iraq so he wasn't deployed with him) but it hit so close to home, it reminded us that it ain't over til it's over. Still, I'm feeling good and looking forward to seeing his face...
S.Joe- I'm going to give the Economist a try.
I was completely addicted to the news while we were in Germany (due to the lack of anything else to watch) and I often found myself feeling anxious and almost paranoid. I was much more calm when my life was news-free (aka college)...maybe ignorance is bliss. :)
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