The News You Need - March 13 2023

 

The News You Need

March 13 2023

Better off not to know.

How the sausage gets made.

How your parents make love.

How life would have been

if only.

About that war in Africa,

because no matter how badly you feel

it won't change a thing.

But if ignorance is bliss

I am condemned to be unhappy.

And if curiosity killed the cat

I may not have much longer.

I know cliches are frowned upon

but they aren't always that obvious.

What was the cat up to, anyway?

And the stupid people I know

are hardly ecstatic.

And when my mother said

clean your plate

because children are starving in Africa

how would fattening me up have helped?

I want to know these things,

even if they are

abstract, and far away.

As they say on TV

the news you need;

or at least

until the next new thing

takes its place.

Well informed.

Knowing less and less

about more and more.

An opinion on everything

no one cares to hear.

I'm a news junkie, but I wonder where it's gotten me. Certainly no closer to solving anything. Especially since I'm not an activist, and wouldn't he any good at it anyway. Not to mention that over the years I’ve seen how even the President of the United States — the most powerful man (woman?) in the world; the leader of the free world — struggles to get anything done.

But still, I’m curious. I like to feel engaged. I enjoy the intellectual stimulation of contending with big issues and competing interests. So the life-long habit persists.