Paying Attention

Scan the news these days – whether in print, radio or TV; or more likely the internet news feeds and websites. Lots of issues hitting prime time. Comments, rants and ugly with the sweet.  Wide variety of topics, followers and opinion setters.

Most of us pay attention to all of those. But doing so dilutes concentration on what is most important. Of course ranking those issues complies with each of our own focal points. What is of interest to you is not likely to capture my rapture. Do I sympathize with your concerns? Of course I do. Do I fully support all of your points? Not very likely. In general, though, I get it that you are upset with something and I wish you peace and solutions to those concerns.

What concerns me the most, however, is the variety of topics under the spotlight at any given time and day, and what actually are the important issues we should be concerned with. Here is my list:

·         Global peace, goodwill among all peoples

·         Global warming and the rising tides of what that means

·         Access to full, fair justice for all

·         Access to educational supports that actually mean something to each person and as long as they need them

·         Access to quality healthcare regardless of the ability to pay for it

·         Economic systems working for everyone, not just the ‘owners’ who most often do not consider the social costs of their operations or lifestyles

That’s it. I could add to the list but to me these six are the building blocks of our existence – our continuing existence! Nothing is guaranteed so we need to pay attention to these six issues or the other nonsense topics will not be of any concern at some point.

That being the case, resist the impulse to read all Facebook entries. Resist responding to each FB entry or comment. Like what you like and skip the rest.

Meanwhile, off of social media, read background on the interests of your choice; and bone up on the facts of them. That’s when understanding begins to form and you’ll wonder why you didn’t know these things before. Save time to invest in this type of reading and internet searching. Rather than spreading meaningless bits and pieces, you will have time to invest in deeper understanding of the issues that matter.

And then you and millions more will have the ability to discern what is important and what is not. It certainly made voting easier for me! For you, too, I bet!!

So, withdraw from the sound-bite slop of meaningless sharing and get to work! You now have the time to do so.

September 28, 2017