Is severe depression the logical and inevitable end result of being a thinking person? Or am I just given to thinking about all the wrong things?
Since so much of my internal monologue is driven by the information I pack into my brain, it regularly occurs to me that I might ought to be more careful with what I choose to read and watch. Because even though the information is vitally important, and the problems they identify and explore really should not be ignored, all this prompts me to do is want to bury my head under a rock.
But isn’t the avoidance and apathy of good people exactly what allows bad behavior to proliferate? I’m thinking there’s a balance to be found, between looking bravely at all that is wrong in the world and seeing the many, many good things that still simmer below that crust.
Some of the bad, for your reading, er, pleasure:
The Sun Magazine has a great interview with biologist, author, and cancer expert Sandra Steingraber in its current issue. She talks as both a scientist and as a mother about how humanity has created an ever-more-toxic environment for itself. You can’t read the entire piece online, but it’s worth tracking down a newsstand copy. Steingraber’s tone is both dire and grounded, and very relatable–expert or no, she’s just another person and parent like everyone else, trying to create the best, most healthy life she can against worsening odds.
A piece in the NY Times about a more subtle and insidious face of global homogenization looks at how American culture is influencing not only how the rest of the world buys, eats, drives, and lives, but also how they think and feel. As someone who works in Western healthcare, I see the damaging effects of our current attitudes toward mental health everyday, and it’s depressing to see this spreading.
Then there’s religious / right-wing indoctrination funded by your tax dollars, the commonplace evil of marketing, in the employ of industrial “food” producers, and the latest farce that belies the “Protection” in the EPA.
Sensory deprivation tanks start to look really good.
My last trip to the book store got me Raj Patel’s The Value of Nothing, which I’m hoping will have enough hope to temper the hopeless, Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest from the bargain bin, and William Least Heat-Moon’s latest, Roads to Quoz. Basically, I’m just trying to remind myself that the world has its share of good, interesting, ordinary folks doing kind works, even if they don’t garner nearly as many headlines as the assholes.
We’ll see if it helps level the scales.
And in the same vein, take a moment to help our neighbors in Haiti. Then turn off the newsfeed for a while. It helps.
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Balancing Act
Is severe depression the logical and inevitable end result of being a thinking person? Or am I just given to thinking about all the wrong things?
Since so much of my internal monologue is driven by the information I pack into my brain, it regularly occurs to me that I might ought to be more careful with what I choose to read and watch. Because even though the information is vitally important, and the problems they identify and explore really should not be ignored, all this prompts me to do is want to bury my head under a rock.
But isn’t the avoidance and apathy of good people exactly what allows bad behavior to proliferate? I’m thinking there’s a balance to be found, between looking bravely at all that is wrong in the world and seeing the many, many good things that still simmer below that crust.
Some of the bad, for your reading, er, pleasure:
The Sun Magazine has a great interview with biologist, author, and cancer expert Sandra Steingraber in its current issue. She talks as both a scientist and as a mother about how humanity has created an ever-more-toxic environment for itself. You can’t read the entire piece online, but it’s worth tracking down a newsstand copy. Steingraber’s tone is both dire and grounded, and very relatable–expert or no, she’s just another person and parent like everyone else, trying to create the best, most healthy life she can against worsening odds.
A piece in the NY Times about a more subtle and insidious face of global homogenization looks at how American culture is influencing not only how the rest of the world buys, eats, drives, and lives, but also how they think and feel. As someone who works in Western healthcare, I see the damaging effects of our current attitudes toward mental health everyday, and it’s depressing to see this spreading.
Then there’s religious / right-wing indoctrination funded by your tax dollars, the commonplace evil of marketing, in the employ of industrial “food” producers, and the latest farce that belies the “Protection” in the EPA.
Sensory deprivation tanks start to look really good.
My last trip to the book store got me Raj Patel’s The Value of Nothing, which I’m hoping will have enough hope to temper the hopeless, Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest from the bargain bin, and William Least Heat-Moon’s latest, Roads to Quoz. Basically, I’m just trying to remind myself that the world has its share of good, interesting, ordinary folks doing kind works, even if they don’t garner nearly as many headlines as the assholes.
We’ll see if it helps level the scales.
And in the same vein, take a moment to help our neighbors in Haiti. Then turn off the newsfeed for a while. It helps.
Like this: