A falling meteor. A man eating shark. A terrorist under your bed. Everywhere you turn it's fear fear fear. Pick any place or time or any situation for that matter and fear is all around us. Can't even go to bed without worrying about a sink hole swallowing you up. Or maybe a tree giving up its' roots and crashing through the living room crushing you to death. The bizarre seems commonplace now. Cannibals and pedophile priests roaming the country side looking for their prey. Next thing you know they'll say writing blog posts causes dementia. Hum, they might have a point there.
Clouds darkening overhead? Is it a tornado? A lightening storm? A blizzard waiting to pack a wallop? Will the power go out? Will the river flood it's banks. A tsunami perhaps? Mud slide land slid or volcanic eruption? Or maybe something man made like a nuclear plant meltdown should grace the headlines... film at 11. A robbery, a mugging or drive by shooting is always good for a minute or two. Embezzlement or fleecing old ladies out of their retirement is a quick empathy fix unless it's the dog caught in the drainage pipe or the two year old stuck in the well.
Better not mess with that I know a cousin of a friend of a friend who lost an eye that way. And if all this weren't enough the microscopic sleuths of the media bring up bed bugs, e coli, salmonella and flesh eating bacteria all with new and improved versions. Brush you teeth with lead tainted toothpaste in waters fit to run a car. Weren't those pajamas recalled when somebody went up like a torch? Pollution alert don't go outside except the inside isn't too healthy either with carpets and paneling out gassing and homes sealed up so tight Houdini couldn't get out.
A knock at the door - a robber maybe? A ring of the phone - no I didn't enter your contest and I'm not giving you my credit card number. An email from a loved one - sorry babe I happen to know you aren't locked in a Mexican jail and I won't wire you the bail.
So what's the expression? "You can fool some of the people all of the time..." With fear it's making us all fearless or maybe crass and cynical. So fear not because we all know something will get us in the end. We aren't immortal.
3 comments:
George Carlin summed it up with the three things mothers scare their kids with. No matter what that hyperactive child is doing, Mother can yell out "Don't do that, you'll:
a) catch pneumonia,
b) break your neck, or
c) poke somebody's eye out.
I fear getting old, if a sink hole shows up here maybe I'll jump into it.
News will always be filled with stories about 50-car pile-ups, tainted food epidemics, crimes, war and such. Stories about how nicely Mrs. Willis' cake turned out or about the best speller in fourth grade wouldn't sell many newspapers or bring many eyeballs to the local TV station.
The intention is isn't to fill papers and newscasts with those bad things, but rather to get the punchiest, most compelling news. So, if it bleeds it leads.
For those who are paranoid or just feeling a little depressed, though, a romp through the local paper can serve to make things worse. A cop is nearly killed by some crazy who flees, but when cornered rams the patrol car. A kid is in the backseat of a stolen car. A family with next to nothing is burned out of their very humble abode, so now they have only the clothes they're wearing. A brave 15-year-old who almost never knew what it's like to be in good health has lost her battle with cancer.
Yes, what constitutes news can create fear, depression and loathing. But I've found if you pick around in most any day's news you can find some good-news, heartwarming and humorous stories, too.
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