By John Thomson
“I have not seen you smile reading the newspaper in three months.” That was my wife’s observation this morning at breakfast. Earlier this year, a colleague much older and wiser gave me shrewd advice that the way to get through tough times is to stop reading the paper, stop watching the news, and under no circumstances should you look at your investment portfolio. “Keep doing what you do best and things will turn around, they always do,” he said, adding an ice cap of reassurance with “trust me, I’ve been through this before.”
So what did I do with that solid insight? I kept reading the newspaper, only watched news, scrolled for international news online and looked at a token investment portfolio swim down the river. My brow has been furrowed and by all accounts reading the news has made me grumpy.
“I have not seen you smile reading the newspaper in three months.” That was my wife’s observation this morning at breakfast. Earlier this year, a colleague much older and wiser gave me shrewd advice that the way to get through tough times is to stop reading the paper, stop watching the news, and under no circumstances should you look at your investment portfolio. “Keep doing what you do best and things will turn around, they always do,” he said, adding an ice cap of reassurance with “trust me, I’ve been through this before.”
So what did I do with that solid insight? I kept reading the newspaper, only watched news, scrolled for international news online and looked at a token investment portfolio swim down the river. My brow has been furrowed and by all accounts reading the news has made me grumpy.
So what’s different about today? Well, for the first time in months, doom and gloom did not make the front page of one national daily. No mortgage meltdown, housing crisis, currency woes. No Iraq, no bailouts no nothing! Instead, Harper Praises “Historic” Victory, says the Post with a warm exchange between Obama. Both the Globe and Post dedicated the front sheet to a terrific gossip piece on what McCain really thinks of Sarah Palin. Republican insiders seem only too pleased to let the claws out, as long as they talk with anonymity, about Palin not able to name the nations involved in the North American Free Trade Agreement and her needing to be educated that Africa is not a country. This is great stuff. Politics is so much fun when fingers start pointing! I’m enjoying this while I can since tomorrow, we will learn that Ford is closing in on bankruptcy and the U.S. unemployment rate is at 6.5%.
While Obama announces Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff and gets to work mapping out how to solve the economic crisis, fix the climate, figure out how to fix the Middle East, end poverty, spread the wealth, what the world is really talking about is Michelle Obama’s victory dress. Does the red signify a stance to the left with the black representing African-American? Maybe the black accents represent mourning for her husband’s grandmother? Everyone who knows me well, knows that my first thoughts to such an editorial would be, WHO CARES! But today, having been beaten down with bad news for so long, that may be the most important topic I have entertained in a long time. More bad news on Monday for sure, but today, I couldn’t be happier with stories of inconsequence. I have missed them.
No comments:
Post a Comment