January 25, 2009 - Media Blackout

I confess to being a recovering current events junkie. It all began, as bad habits often do, by a simple act. Over twenty-five years ago, I wrote a letter to the editor for the Long Beach Press-Telegram about abortion. I was in law school at the time and I gave quite a logical and lawyerlike opinion. The addiction-dealer (the editor) later awarded me with a 'Quarterly Letter to the Editor Award' and then invited me to their annual luncheon for their column contributors. Ah, yes, I was hooked.
After that - and for years to come - I would read voraciously, watch the news (cable was my co-enabler) and then write columns, commentaries, and passionate opinions on whatever subject caught my attention. Unfortunately, it was a growing addiction and just one letter to the editor a week or one talking-head show wasn't enough. The information/opinion fix became more demanding and my life became consumed with the latest political news, world-events, and the local comings-and-goings of our politicians and movers and shakers.
With high-speed internet and online comments, the addiction became a full-throated and frequent response cycle. I'd type a comment to a current event posting and then check back over and over again for counter-responses and then I'd flame back a response and on it would go...and the current event addiction junkies would waste hours (days?) arguing and writing.
When I turned to Zen Buddhism it was an epiphany when I discovered the beauty of quiet reflection and the impermanence of opinions and world events. It truly struck home when I went camping at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and had a 'forced' media blackout for a few days. It was so blissful it truly stunned me. When I got back I read the three-day old paper to see what I missed and it dawned on me that the "old" news was, actually, rather uninteresting. I mean to say uninteresting in the 'current' event model and it read more like history or reading a 20-year old news report; interesting but actually irrelevant to my current life.
I have discovered the quiet beauty of non-media addiction and when I say I am a 'recovering' new junkie it is just that. I slip at times (cursed internet!) but am getting far better at enjoying the present moment fully and experiencing the love of living in the now...right where I am. So, it may be a struggle, but the beauty of engaging in the now and not getting all worked up over events I have absolutely no control over is my new life-model; and it is truly bliss!
My recommendation (a re-fillable prescription for me and others who may be suffering a similar addiction) is to go to a non-internet, non-blackberry, non-cellphone, and non-newspaper environment - camping, backpacking, blue-water sailing, whatever - and enjoy the moment. You may find, as I did, that it becomes easier and easier to give up the need-to-know everything that is going on in the world. Once you do, life is blissfully aware.