The News

Surprise! It sucks.

I recently conducted a little experiment on myself. For several months, I've been reading The News every day.

I know what you're thinking: That's what everyone does, you weirdo!

But truthfully, this is unusual for me. I've been finding my strongest preference is to read The News - a swath of papers, international and local, and large handful of independent non-partisan publications - once a month.

Yes, month.

I would take an evening and catch up on everything I could: coronavirus numbers, the latest super life affirming science, major controversies, the latest wars, medical studies, residential school ground searches. Financial news (yawning just writing this).

Then, I thought, I'll read that shit every day! Call me a masochist. Call me an intellectual. Call me crazy. Call me normal.

In truth, I'm working on an “important” writing project. I hereby acknowledge that my rants about dogs in stores and my bathing habits are unimportant - which makes it all the more impressive that you're willing to read them! Thanks, friends.

This new project of mine is spiritual in nature - profound, if you will- and calls for me to ensure that I'm an open vessel for all of the world’s concerns.

All of them.

Needless to say, in the hopes of writing something helpful and hopeful to the average thinking and feeling person, I need to know what I'm dealing with. What we are all investing our time into every day, what we’re ingesting.

There’s a lot of junk food in the standard Canadian diet of information. It's made me bloated, weary, cranky, and distracted. It's made my memory terrible, given me brain fog, and offered me little hope that many of the wonderful humans of the world have anything to do with what gets published as “news.”

There are small moments of encouragement: a racist teacher getting fired over here; a tax break for artists over there; a some life-saving science up ahead.

Mostly, it just sucks.

Reading The News sucks, unless you curate it. It is possible to locate and subscribe to independent, non-partisan, small and dedicated informative publications. We can give them our money to help them stay afloat, and read truly thoughtful analyses of current events and listen to some genuinely workable solutions to our worldly woes.

In the meantime, I'll be writing my little book, assured as always in my firsthand understanding of our societal symbiosis with the insanity that surges through our daily newsfeeds.

The News is still bloody terrible - unless you write it yourself.