Some news is good news. It can go either way, really. The good. The bad. A lot of the time, it depends on where you are standing. One person’s good news could be another’s disdain.
Like this. It is illegal to go hunting in cemeteries in Oregon. Well, certainly, that is tremendously good news for the people who go there to pay their respects. A little peace and quiet, please. But, for those hunters who enjoy shooting cemetery squirrels, this may be a huge disappointment. And then again, it makes no difference, one way or the other, if we live in Vermont.
The news can come to us in any number of ways. Publications. Broadcasts. Or even from above. Remarkably, the number of Americans who say God has spoken to them? A whopping 36 percent. If we get that phone call, we better hope it is good news. Yes, nearly four in ten Americans have heard directly from the big guy upstairs. They should have a picnic every year and compare notes, I think.
This next one could go either way. In Baltimore, Maryland, it is technically illegal to take a lion to a movie theater. Again, good for all the other people sitting in their movie seats, eating their popcorn or steak sandwiches. Bad news if your pet lion wants to go see “The Jungle Book” on the big screen.
Since we are there at the movies. In West Virginia, it is technically illegal to wear a hat inside a movie theater. It might obstruct someone else’s view. Thank God the lion isn’t sitting directly behind you, and your rather tall Fez.
I should mention this. There are between 5,000 and 7,000 tigers kept as pets in the United States. I am not sure about lions, but It is estimated that there are 10,000 to 20,000 big cats currently in private ownership in the United States. All and all, this seems like plain old bad news to me.
So, as you can see. The news we hear can go either way, really. Oftentimes, people will say, “I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” I wonder how many people choose which.
Well. It just so happens there have been studies, and here are the general results. Most people with good and bad news to share prefer to share the good news first. From their point of view, they think maybe this won’t suck so bad if I just ease into things with the good news first.
But the same study shows that most receivers of good and bad news prefer to hear the bad news first. This may be for a lot of reasons, but mostly it feels like they have reduced the worry factor. If I know bad news is coming, I’ll focus too much on that, and I won’t be able to appreciate what the good news might be.
Me? I thoroughly dislike when someone gives me this choice. Maybe because they are privy to information that will directly affect my life. Or perhaps, it is just the fact that I don’t like bad news. I’m a conflict avoider. I like the sound of Ethel Merman singing, “Everything’s coming up roses.”
And then there is news. Just news. Noteworthy information. Things that are “new” to us. It could be about anything. And sometimes, it is neither good nor bad. Just a fact. A truth.
• The Brooklyn Bridge was built in 1876, the same year as the Battle of Little Big Horn.
• Louisiana’s capitol building is the tallest one of any U.S. state.
• 85,000,000 tons of paper are used each year in the U.S.
• Seattle’s Fremont Bridge rises up and down more than any drawbridge in the world.
These sorts of things that are neither here nor there.
Today. We are bound to get some news. Of some kind.
I can only hope it will be good, but no matter what it is, it becomes a part of us. Truly.
Everything we experience becomes a part of us. Everything we see, hear, smell, and touch affects our being. It may be minuscule, or it may be significant. Either way, it alters our perception of the world from that moment forward. Every choice we make from that point on will now have that bit of information somehow attached.
That includes every word here.
And here we go. Again.
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“News travels fast in places where nothing much ever happens.”
― Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye
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“I would not know how I am supposed to feel about many stories if not for the fact that the TV news personalities make sad faces for sad stories and happy faces for happy stories. ”
― Dave Barry
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“Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.”
― Edward R. Murrow
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Ethel sings it.
