08/19/2021
By Kate Stone Lombardi
A few weeks ago, I was reading a funny essay by David Sedaris and came across this paragraph:
When Trump was President, I started every morning by reading the New York Times, followed by the Washington Post, and would track both papers’ Web sites regularly throughout the day. To be less than vigilant was to fall behind, and was there anything worse than not knowing what Stephen Miller just said about Wisconsin? My friend Mike likened this constant monitoring to having a second job. It was exhausting, and the moment that Joe Biden was sworn into office I let it all go. When the new President speaks, I feel the way I do on a plane when the pilot announces that after reaching our cruising altitude he will head due north, or take a left at Lake Erie. You don’t need to tell me about your job, I always think. Just, you know, do it.
Yes! Exactly. That’s how I felt. I could relax now and let Biden run the country. But I loved how Sedaris also pointed out the absurdity of obsessively monitoring the news, not to mention what a waste of time it was. Stephen Miller’s rantings – just a bad dream now. And what difference did our endless watching/reading/listening make?
But this week tested my resolve. And while the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a debacle with heartbreaking and horrifying results, there remains plenty of blame to go around since our entry into the war 20 years ago.
And now the Taliban. The earthquake in Haiti. The Delta Variant.
Again, I can’t look away. I know, no one is holding a gun to my head making me consume news. It’s the same old struggle I often return to: as a citizen, I believe I should be aware and involved, but as someone who works hard on her mental health, I need to limit my exposure. Balance is a challenge. Informed but not obsessed. Compassionate but not overwhelmed by anxiety and sadness.
But that choice – a balance of what’s tolerable – is a privilege.
Women in Afghanistan don’t have the choice of turning off the Taliban. They’re living it. As are the people in Haiti with their multiple miseries. And the health care workers in overflowing ICUs. And people experiencing racism. And people already experiencing the fires, floods, heat and other fallout from climate change. Burying their heads to the world around them is not an option.
Of course simply following the news – let alone obsessing over it – doesn’t help anyone. Action does. Money does. And that’s where all this time and energy should be spent.