News Junkie!
We became valuable to each other...
I am avowedly a news junkie. It just seems to be part of my personality. From the time I could read (around 3 1/2 yrs. old -God bless my mom) I still remember the magical moment when the letters of the alphabet ‘became’ words!
I devoured everything in sight and soon vowed to read every book ever written! I have since been out-paced (a difficult realization). Thankfully, a little discernment entered the picture, as well.
But certain hazards emerged along the way, shall we say…
Living on Cape Breton sans TV and radio…the news, such as it was, was acquired by way of a 5 party-line phone, where I very soon developed my hatred of gossip.
From there, I was catapulted into NYC with its 24 hour NEWS AROUND THE CLOCK bliss. My appetite was boundless until I realized that it was the same short report on an endless loop! By that time, my brain was literally entranced and addicted….with my mind becoming somewhat warped in the process.
Once that became clear to me, I was able to un-addict and de-trance myself.
I had to step back…go ‘news’ free for a time and re-approach in a better way. I learned to engage life…not the reporting of it. They can be vastly different entities!
I also watched what news food beckoned me into junkie status. Was it murder, celebrity gossip, crime, rape, politics, tragedy, current events, etc.?
I had to get real again each time. I needed to find a healthy way to get what I needed…not just turn away altogether. Neither extreme is useful or healthy.
Later, with the advent of satellites (I had 3 perched atop my roof for maximum world coverage!), then the internet, especially in the early phase before it became so ‘curated’, I was once again in ‘Information Heaven’.
Then covid hit…Then social media exploded in different directions. People were shut down, some lost their livelihoods, worked from home, etc. So with this wealth of opportunity and time on our hands, other outlets were pursued. (Netflix was never my thing, but for many it was.) For many others, there were important exchanges of inquiry and information…soon tainted.
One good thing is that we discovered each other…and the marketplace adapted to that…also soon tainted, but such is the state of things.
We began to do our own research and thinking and we shared our thoughts and findings! We debated, sharpened our skills and became part of a process…
We became valuable to each other over the voices of the pundits, thought leaders and so-called and sometimes self-appointed experts. We become increasingly more adept at moving through the obstacle course, finding the meat…what we need…and spitting out the bones, as it were.
But the proliferation of new thought leaders vying for eyeballs and dollars in these spaces is fierce.
There is much vying for 1st place (which should come up for examination periodically—-What is it exactly that we are serving here, anyway?)
We find all kinds of people along the way. This never-before-seen worldwide access to people and information is an incredible boon…a haven and a heaven for those ostracized or not understood by family and society, and for those needing a broader reach of information…but things can spiral down into hell pretty quickly, if we’re not watchful.
These appetites don’t pack on the pounds like food addictions, but they can weigh my head and spirit down and throw me off-balance just the same.
What addictions are being teased again? A need for horror, or excitement, hand-wringing, righteous indignation? Constant complaining and misery, scouting out opponents and winning arguments?
What emotions can one be addicted to?
Am I addicted to anger? Is my anger a substitute for engagement or is it a kind of pseudo declaration of effectiveness?
Are we just endlessly looping…going nowhere?
That is a trance!
A pain trance? A ‘while away the hours’ trance? An ‘I don’t know what can be done?!’ trance? A hopeless trance?
An “It will soon be over’ trance?’ Or is it an ‘I’ll just clap like a trained seal on my favorite stacks’ trance?’
A trance is NOT LIFE!
Where is the life you should be living? I ask myself at times…
Are you using these avenues to build your mind, knowledge base and character…and avoiding the hazards? Or are you unwittingly getting caught up in yet another trance…all the while pointing at the ‘other guys’ as being the fools. It bears asking…
Maybe…and most importantly…
Where is the line drawn between investigation and endless and tiresome muck-raking?
When one is addicted to an emotion-say non-stop RAGE at the system or government, etc., while they might be largely right, they are flailing around much like addicts do.
If they don’t get their next fix, watch out! (they may even lie, cheat, steal, exaggerate and misrepresent to get that fix)
Then they start hanging with other rage-aholics, misery-aholics, smart-aholics and their ilk.
If one is married or addicted to a stance, the same thing happens. You cannot think or act outside your parameters…I think you get the idea…
And then if one has put themselves in the position of making their living from that place, they are in a cage of their own making. They are in an ego-trap, as well. They cannot enjoy the flexibility of mind, emotion and soul that may be needed as we try to work together to help one another through the maze.
What one lacks in intelligence, another supplies in heart, while another brings experience, fresh insight, wisdom. You must not put yourself at the top of the hierarchy… I mean, you can, but at what cost?
One important thing to note has to do with focus…
An example: my husband used to bring me his insights regarding my business. A bit alien to me, as I was focused on the details. In fact, it was the details that made it profitable. But he brought big-picture focus! So valuable!! I could not have seen those aspects without his patient help. (I often see that in men compared to women. We compliment each others skills).
But there is another version of focus that accompanies obsession, trauma and/or injury. And that is narrowness of focus. It has visibly physical characteristics. Pupils narrow, pulse rate goes up and focus narrows. People lock on. They have a hard time being any other way. The hammer sees everything as a nail. The surgeon sees everything as needing a scalpel…
Suspicion, often leading to rage, is the only felt emotion. They are that injured. They loop endlessly and all efforts to help are rejected.
Let’s look at this from the sensual/pleasure angle. A baby feels pleasure and happiness throughout their bodies. There are dozens of erections per hour in the womb! We are wired for pleasure and happiness. But depending on how the experiences of pleasure and happiness are hindered- through awful parenting, religion, culture, personal experiences, they go from feeling full-body pleasure (don’t forget happiness) to shrinking and becoming increasingly and narrowly centered around the sexual organs…where they can become perverted or even extinguished. A narrowing and diminishment of pleasure and joy...
Happiness has all but left the building in our culture. We have become a nation of angry cranks and neurotics!
A variation on the theme…
I can see the sexual state of a christian marriage within its first year, despite the smiles for the camera and the affirmations. Weight gain is the giveaway. Food has supplanted sex.
In healing, pleasure is restored to the whole body and the whole personality regains its early ease, joy and balance.
But, in that narrowed state, people become angry, rageful, awkwardly seeking what is missing.
These days we also now see the effects of medications on libido...Many, many people feel empty, unloved and unlovable, blunted in their personalities, sexuality and spiritual aptitudes. Rage and violence, turned inward or outward, supplant sex that is deeply frustrated.
Is some of this rage a fistula for something else? Hidden fury always on the verge of erupting…endlessly? A cry of inner pain?
That’s what I’m seeing in some of these faces. Traumatized people…poisoning their audiences with the same high-anxiety panic-stricken fits they are prone to. Rage triggers abound…
It’s well-disguised…for awhile. There’s ALWAYS a new headline to upset…so they go careening from one crisis to the next.
What is the effect on the audience? Are they left dispirited and hopeless? Some people are easily given to these upsets by nature. Most of us have a weak spot or two.
I’ll never forget a patient…a dear little older lady…who came to me trembling from head to foot over a deep stock market fall that made headlines for a time. She was coming apart at the seams! So deeply upset…yet something didn’t seems right about it. Finally, I asked dear ‘Bonnie’ “Do you actually own any stocks?” “Well…no.” “Your kids, family?” “No.” “Your (modest) house is paid off, right? No credit card debt? You live within your means and have a little put aside? ” “Well…yes, that’s true.” “Why are you, of all people, making yourself sick over the stock market? You have lived appropriately. This has nothing to do with you, dear heart!” I talked her down off the ledge…
I find I’m talking more and more people down off the ledge these days. Worried sick over 5G, Haarp, poisoning of EEEEVVVVEEERRRYYYTTTHHHIIINNNGGG.
They are becoming quite ill, warped and incapacitated. Their lives are being poisoned by the non-stop doom and threat. They are poisoning themselves with their thoughts. (and yes, one can do that)
I really wonder myself how I have managed to have such a long and wonderful life inside the ‘kill box’. (actually, I wouldn’t have if I had succumbed to all the fears that I’m prone to).
Doctors have saved my life in surgery…and refused to send a bill! They’re not all murderers and poisoners as the prevailing headlines insist. Not by a long shot. These are systems and people in flux…not perfect by any means, but much good still exists.
After covid, food shortages were harped on. As I went to place an order for some prepper food, I caught myself. ‘This is the 3rd time in my life, that I will have fallen for what is most likely a scam!’ (I think we may all have starvation and fears in our inherited DNA)
The last time was 30 yrs ago when interest rates were 17+% and the sky was falling once again. World War III is always on the horizon. Dig your hole and stock it with non-perishables!! Jesus is always coming back again any minute. (I was young and impressionable…)
Look to the environment you are raising your kids in… This can’t be good…
A couple of close calls with death can go a long way toward showing us how spectacularly off-base we can be…
Think Saul on horseback riding off to kill more christians on the way to becoming Paul the apostle.
Just sayin’… We’re all made of the same stuff.
If my author doth crusade too much or is exhibiting signs of hysteria or over-control and you find the message is having the wrong effect on you, consider stepping aside for a moment to re-assess.
News junkies must remain aware of their weaknesses and tendencies!
Consider taking a Rage Break…
Resign from the congregation of “Our Lady of Perpetual Pot-Stirrers”.
Rest a little. Nurse yourself back to life not lived on the edge.
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On the issue of anonymity…
There are varying levels of anonymity…for myriad reasons.
While I don’t invite over-exposure, I have dealt along the lines of ‘being known’ in the higher realms for a good long time. Being empathic/psychic and knowing a handful of genuine psychics also gives rise to a little more evidence that we are not as private as we might like to think we are. So I tend to ‘err’ on the side of transparency.
People come at this in a variety of ways…
Very briefly, I once had a seemingly bizarre lucid dream that preceded a year of fast change and growth in my life.
The images in the dream and even the sequence of them encapsulated all the events…, unimaginable to me at the time…that were to come.
They were a precise shorthand that gave confirmation and smoothed the way.
One of the events was to spend a season among nudists. That is a level of transparency that removes all social trappings.
Picture a banker sitting next to a carpenter sitting next to a preacher sitting next to a retired British Airways pilot (a practicing mystical adept) exchanging conversation…a great and surprising equalizer.
For my part, I had no idea that I would be yanked out of retirement and put to work as a massage therapist the following year. For me, it was a much-needed crash course in all things body/psyche-related.
But, the big surprise came at the conclusion of that experience…
From Spirit… “Ok. Put your clothes back on. Your next assignment: Now go out and be spiritually naked.”
Spiritual nakedness?! What the heck! Haven’t I been through enough?! What on earth does that mean?
Every new lesson builds on the previous one…
So that is why you see a level of frankness and transparency in my writing.
Is it easy? Not really…Not always…but I see the benefit.
How else are we to be of benefit if we are not honest…first with ourselves, naked before our Maker…and then with each other (clothes on, in case anyone got carried away there).
People who cloak and mask their identities have their reasons and I do not dispute or disparage that necessity or their choices.
I just operate how I operate.
To my esteemed and highly-valued Readers, thank You again!!
I’m glad we found each other…
As always, feel free to Like, Share, to Subscribe (always free) and to Restack (at my peril…just kidding)
the worst of times...Debra Robinson·October 5, 2024
"Ever since I can remember, I have lived in the worst of times.