“The Times They Are A-Changin’…”

As I approached my one year anniversary of my last day at WNBC, I started to reflect upon the last 365 days.  As I did so, I became more and more astounded and at times overwhelmed, as I think about all of the things that have occurred and changed, in not only my life, but for all of us.

My perspective on so much of life has been altered and often shaken by the people and world around me.  I know I’m far from alone in feeling this way, but each one of our stories and journeys is different. 

I’m writing this blog, both for a personal catharsis and to hopefully help others reading it cope just a little bit better.

First, I don’t believe this is the end of the world. Whatever your religious or spiritual beliefs are, I just don’t think that is what we are dealing with. I know it’s a bit longer forecast than 10 days, but I’m feeling confident about that prediction . Before anyone thinks it, NO! I’m not trying to play God….I’m short on the skills and patience to be a deity. It’s just not in my DNA. 

I believe what we are dealing with, is a time of a series of changes and issues confronting us and making our comfortable world feel quite unsettled, almost like a stranger to us. 

First things first. Change is a constant. Even when things appear to be the same, they are not on some level, the second any time passes. Such as you are reading this sentence something will be different, however slight, within you , after you’ve read these words. See. It just happened.

If we paid attention to all of these changes we might find ourselves so self absorbed that we also miss much of life going on around us.  As such, we’ve developed some internal unconscious acceptance of the steady stream of change.  However, when change becomes something more physically or emotionally impactful, we quickly pay attention and react. 

I don’t see anything particularly wrong with that, except when that perception of change is dictated by something other than truth.  We live in a world of constant streams of data and information. That might be ok if it served a constructive purpose for humanity.  The rapid and uncontrollable surge in social media in the last 10 to 20 years often leaves most of us in a dizzying and depressed state.  Yet, we are addicted. 

The truth is, some positive things have come about from this social media blitz.

However, I believe it’s only in those things, that are based in truth.  The issue is, much of what is out there in cyber world or any aspect of media, is not totally true. Too often it’s completely false.  That’s a problem unto itself. 

The bigger issue, is that large portions of the population believe it.  When this happens our reality that we live in, mainly the one construed inside our own minds, is no longer based in fact.  It is the new skewed world of “who needs the facts? We’re telling you the REAL story.”  Now we are creating an alter world from the one that is truly going on around us.  When you mix the two you have a problem.

Hence, here we are today.

It just seems as if most of us have stopped thinking for ourselves. We need to be told who to follow, what to do, where to be and how to do it. We have to be either right or left, black or white, liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist. The list goes on and on. In my opinion most of life ends up in the spectrum of grey.

The really disturbing part is most people get their information from the news media industry and then the online world, which has very few checks and balances for what is fact or fiction. There was a time when the news you would see on TV was delivered by trusted men and women with no agenda but to get the story out. The anchors or reporters didn’t have to drum up and exaggerate nor fabricate any of the information. It went out to us, the viewers, we then decided how we felt about what we were seeing and hearing.

That ship has sailed for quite some time now.  If you don’t make a lot of noise or create controversy by taking a strong stance or side on any issues, political or not, the belief is,  nobody will watch.

The sad truth of the matter is just like everything else, the news industry, with perhaps a few rare exceptions, is in the business of making money. With so many choices now available people tend to migrate to the squeakiest wheel, the most shocking news source they can find. The more it scares and sends anxiety running through you the more you will keep watching, is the theory.  The more you watch, the more the networks can sell,  hence more money is generated. 

Fear is a powerful emotion. World leaders have used it through the history of the world to control and manipulate and gain power. I’m not sure where this is going today, but I do know that fear is being used as a tool by many sources both politically and socially as we speak. It’s not a great path to take.

I really don’t want to get into specifics of who or what I feel are our biggest threats to our lives today. I don’t feel like listening to backlash because it doesn’t agree with your beliefs. It’s OK to have different opinions about the issues of the world we live in. That allegedly is the reason we created this country.  Even with different race, ethnicity, religion and socio-economic backgrounds, we were supposed to be ONE nation. The United States of America. Right now, honestly, the more appropriate name should be the Divided States of America. We have truly lost our way. 

In the last few months we’ve been dealt something not seen for a few generations and instead of it bringing us together we have found more reasons to divide. If we don’t pay more attention to where this is going, dare I say we might see something along the lines of a past great hardship to this country from 1861-1865, The Civil War.  I’m hoping that’s me being very dramatic. I’m seeing way too many “arm up people!” comments on social media and that’s really disturbing, as if that’s the answer. 

So much more to say, but I will leave it here. Probably being unemployed for this long is making me pay more attention to the world going on around me than before. Not good for my health, but such is life.

All I ask of anyone reading this and more likely those who don’t read this. Don’t believe EVERYTHING you hear or read. Challenge it. Make sure it’s based in truth. You also can’t dismiss everything with “fake news” because there’s often some truth in that information as well. 

Let’s try to think for ourselves first instead of being fed information and just swallowing. Let’s also try and make ourselves proud as a nation. It’s not about going back to the way it was. If anything most of us have learned, I would think, is that change is perpetual. How we respond to it, is what’s important. Don’t look to go back, but figure out how to make today a good day and tomorrow a better one, even with changes that don’t always feel so comfortable.

Changing is growing….it’s not a weakness. It’s listening, digesting and then moving forward as we evolve. Labeling is not the answer, but maybe learning to accept and respect the people and the world around us, even if it goes against some prior notion in our  head is a better path . It’s OK to agree to disagree but it’s really not cool to disagree so one can then hate.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Let’s start realizing what we are doing. Time to open up not just our hearts, but our eyes.

Sunshine always!!!