"I have discovered that trying to be half-informed on too many topics leaves me worse off than before. I am becoming more satisfied with being informed on the topics that truly matter to my place and my people. That is enough/"
This is the wisdom I needed to hear tonight James. Thank you. I had not made the connection about being "worse off" before.
I spent a decent portion of my 20s participating in message board culture, mostly about baseball and college football. As I got older, I realized the futility of spending my time arguing on the internet about trivial matters. Then I moved things over to Twitter, where I participated far too often in political discourse. The end result was the same. It was futile and it didn't leave me a better citizen or more fulfilled in any way. Focusing on the truly meaningful things that I can influence is an ongoing journey, but one that gives me greater inner peace.
I've had that very verse from Matthew on my mind since Sunday when I first learned of the barbarism happing in Israel. It's the first bit of news I've decided to look a bit further into since February. I'm indeed worse off for it.
I feel in my bones this conflict is monumental so I feel I need keep an eye on it but I know from today that I'm going to have to do this carefully and from a distance and only check things every few days. Perhaps just once a week.
I've been on a slow pullback from the news for a while. Last year, a friend shared that he stopped watching/reading the news entirely after the Uvalde school shooting. He has young daughters (just like I do) and he saw that there was no way he could consume a constant stream of sadness. As he points out, our brains were never intended to receive a firehose of information like this, especially not sad and stress-inducing news. That was meaningful advice for me, because he's a thoughtful and well-read person doing great things. I still get the urges to watch something happen on Twitter in real time, but the Israel events were too much and I knew I could not watch or follow in a healthy matter.
"I have discovered that trying to be half-informed on too many topics leaves me worse off than before. I am becoming more satisfied with being informed on the topics that truly matter to my place and my people. That is enough/"
This is the wisdom I needed to hear tonight James. Thank you. I had not made the connection about being "worse off" before.
I spent a decent portion of my 20s participating in message board culture, mostly about baseball and college football. As I got older, I realized the futility of spending my time arguing on the internet about trivial matters. Then I moved things over to Twitter, where I participated far too often in political discourse. The end result was the same. It was futile and it didn't leave me a better citizen or more fulfilled in any way. Focusing on the truly meaningful things that I can influence is an ongoing journey, but one that gives me greater inner peace.
Looking forward to Part 2
Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts after Part 2!
I've had that very verse from Matthew on my mind since Sunday when I first learned of the barbarism happing in Israel. It's the first bit of news I've decided to look a bit further into since February. I'm indeed worse off for it.
I feel in my bones this conflict is monumental so I feel I need keep an eye on it but I know from today that I'm going to have to do this carefully and from a distance and only check things every few days. Perhaps just once a week.
I'm going back to my people, place and prayer.
I've been on a slow pullback from the news for a while. Last year, a friend shared that he stopped watching/reading the news entirely after the Uvalde school shooting. He has young daughters (just like I do) and he saw that there was no way he could consume a constant stream of sadness. As he points out, our brains were never intended to receive a firehose of information like this, especially not sad and stress-inducing news. That was meaningful advice for me, because he's a thoughtful and well-read person doing great things. I still get the urges to watch something happen on Twitter in real time, but the Israel events were too much and I knew I could not watch or follow in a healthy matter.