Stay Informed, Not Numbed

24/7 news. You need to keep up with the minute-by-minute happenings of the world! Now! Anytime! You know that news availability 24/7 will bring issues of the globe into clarity and unbiased completeness. 

Well, I’ve found that simply ingesting 24-hour news cycles doesn’t get you all the insights you really need to hear.  Much as I have come to respect some reporters and their “shows” on TV news networks, they are still hamstrung by corporate offices one floor above the studios. The hamstringing may come from a political persuasion or taboos laid down by advertisers. Result? A lack of completeness.

I may have missed it, but in 100 days of reporting on the Gulf Oil Spill there was no serious discussion about Peak Oil and the reasons this particular incident was so indicative of the future. Nor about the critical fuel consumption addiction that causes such risky exploitation..., er, I mean exploration. 

But we sure know what leaking oil and methane looks like via that leak-cam! This play-by-play; day-after-day live scenario, created a public numbness to the oil disaster, not unlike the Haiti earthquake. That’s the irony of 24/7 networks. Even though the incident de jour may be justifiable news, the continual cycling of distressing images encourages us turn away and blot it out.

This numbness inhibits civic interest and, often, important societal habit changes. With so many potentially negative news issues on our plates each day, we can work up a pretty strong barrier to life outside our household. That’s a shame. 

If there was ever a time to be clear about global health issues and personal futures, it’s now. Why can’t there be frank reporting about oil and gas facts that spell out the adverse affects awaiting all of us??  It’s been upstaged by the 24/7 leak-cam.

So, I generally limit my time with the boob tube media. By choosing a select variety of daily informational websites to peruse online (including BBC), I can receive a more clear and accurate and complete content on issues. Personally, some of the sites listed along the sidebar of this blog have become my choice for daily informed time. Choose your own. Don’t get numbed. Our informed collective insight about Earth is crucial.

Moving On, Like A Waxing Moon

The President told us tonight that focus on the oil gusher deep in the Gulf of Mexico will not fade; that those responsible will pay; that renewable energy is now really officially on the table.  It was a fair speech, but my blood pressure began to rise.

It makes me crazy that nowhere in the frenzied media (including tonight’s complete cast of the “best journalists in the business” crammed behind a desk in the CNN newsroom), nor in Congress is there talk of serious oil conservation, peak oil realities and greenhouse gas calamities on the horizon. Nowhere is there talk of the ethics of oil usage in this country. 

I will be attending the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in central Wisconsin this coming weekend.  Such topics will be spread throughout the presentations and discussions. I assume my nerves and stomach are in similar states to those thousands who will be there; including Bill McKibbon of 350.org.


So, as the TV pundits pundicized, I took my churning frustration out to the darkening backyard. Right on cue, the waxing crescent moon loomed over our dark roof and next to the silhouetted spruce tree out front.  The evening sliver was slowly descending in the darkening western sky.  Venus sparkled a few degrees to the north at the same elevation.  

And then, in its erratic egocentric dance routine, the first firefly of the season darted around blinking, “Look at me! Look at me!” Cute, but not quite Venus, fella.  I sighed. Three very different "little" natural lights had combined to settle me down.

Down-came-the-blood-pressure.

The newest of the waxing crescent moon has always been my favorite phase.  I wrote this poem almost a decade ago to gather thoughts of this little sliver.


RENEW

The new crescent succeeds
the dark void of new moon nights.
It defers to greater luminescence
in the low west at day’s end
and patiently awaits the sun’s departure.

Emerging like the mirage of a clean white thread,
the moon becomes its own elusive twilight show.

Sun and Earth and Moon 
will continue to blend movement 
so this infant moon
develops its presence
into brighter nights.


Sometimes it appears suddenly. 
I feel an ephemeral tug, like a twenty-nine day tide.
Beauty so powerfully delicate.
Spiritually so symbolic of growth. 
A reminder to revitalize.

Refocus on mindfulness.
Reaffirm love for self.
Recommit to compassion. 
Regenerate the soul with wisdom.
Renew.


Short minutes. 
The crescent succumbs to the horizon.
Higher and fuller tomorrow.


This is the way I need to deal with my frustrations of the present and fears of the future.  Regroup, take a deep breath, and smile at the moon.