Friday, October 15, 2004
Page 15
AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)
Sure Can Use a Little Good News
By J’AMY PACHECO
I was cleaning house the other day when a song on my daughter’s CD player caught my attention.
It was an old Anne Murray song, released back in the 1980s. It had been a favorite of mine, but one I’d largely forgotten until that recent day, and I stopped to listen.
Titled, “A Little Good News,” the song is essentially about bad news dominating our front pages and airwaves. Near the beginning, it goes like this:
There’s a local paper rolled up in a rubber band.
One more sad story’s one more than I can stand.
Just once, how I’d like to see a headline say,
“Not much to print today, can’t find nothing bad to say.”
I was struck by the thought that these words, more than two decades old, are as appropriate today as they were back then.
Between the politics of the upcoming elections, the sensationally detail-oriented coverage of recent high-profile murder and sexual assault cases and graphic, day-by-day reporting on the war overseas, I can hardly stand to keep up with each day’s news.
That’s a dangerous development for someone in my line of work. While I do scan two daily newspapers, I’ve become very selective in which articles I’ll actually read.
Other than about an hour during Mount St. Helen’s awakening last week, I haven’t watched television news for quite some time. Although I have an Internet home page that highlights current news from Yahoo, Reuters and the Los Angeles Times, I usually don’t get past the headlines, outside of the section titled “Oddly Enough.”
Now and then, something disturbing slips into the early morning program on the country music station I listen to. One notable day last week, it was the brief mention that plans were discovered in a terrorist’s computer indicating a potential attack targeting California elementary schools. Don’t think THAT didn’t get the mommies talking in the parking lot.
Listening to the Anne Murray song, though, it occurred to me that there is a lot more in my life that is good than bad. In spite of the negative news that overwhelms us at every turn, there is a lot more in the world that is happy and healthy than threatening and scary.
Last week, for example, my eight year old accomplished a noteworthy feat: she successfully and correctly answered 100 subtraction problems in less than six minutes in math class. Oh, and the coffee stains came out of my favorite pink tablecloth.
Now that’s what I call good news.
My enterprising husband managed to fix my clothes dryer just before I went out to buy a new one, saving us hundreds of dollars. I can’t complain about that.
Good news can be found everywhere, if we just look for it. More examples:
My mom flew to Georgia and back safely, despite Mother Nature’s having pelting the region with a slew of hurricanes before her arrival.
Mount St. Helens has blown off a lot of steam, but hasn’t destroyed anything or anyone. Yet, anyway.
My best friend’s little girl’s soccer team won its game last Saturday, for the second weekend in a row. They might even make the playoffs.
Just two weekends ago, my best friend kicked the winning goal in her own grown-up soccer league. It was her first goal of the season, and it was enough to win the otherwise scoreless game. Go, Lindsay!!
My brother and his wife have a second little girl on the way. And while the Army keeps borrowing him for several weeks at a time, they have kept him in California. I definitely can’t complain about that.
And here’s some really exciting news: my daughter’s third grade language arts class has challenged fifth and sixth grade students at the school to a reading competition – to see which group can read 100 million words by December. The class that wins gets a yet-to-be-determined prize.
Just in the nick of time, my little reader got hooked on a new series of books that she is devouring. (Thank you, Lemony Snicket and HarperCollins Publishers!)
Nobody I know is sick or in jail, and everybody’s cars seem to be working. That big earthquake forecast for September? Didn’t happen.
So, if you’re in the mood for a little good “news,” there it is.
Enjoy.
Copyright 2004, Metropolitan News Company