Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Media loves the swine flu / Ruby Tuesday

Doesn't the media just love a pandemic? It’s almost as good as a terrorist incident and it’s even better than a juicy murder or a pit bull attack. Pandemics are great for selling papers and holding viewers in thrall. Personally I try to avoid reports of these kinds of things because they make me nervous and I don’t like that feeling. It interrupts the flow of my day.

At our house we don’t get the daily newspaper, and we don’t have cable TV. We get our news from the radio and from the local weekly. That way we hear the headlines and get a bit of analysis but we don’t have to experience the blow-by-blow freaking out about the terrible things.
Oh yeah, the internet helps too. I like reading blogs and alternative press on my computer. It gives me a perspective on the news.

Swine flu is the latest. But remember the avian flu? Remember SARS? Remember Y2K? We all react as if the sky were falling and the media just pumps up the fear factor. To me it’s the fear that’s the problem.

How can we live our lives when we’re afraid of invisible germs or computer viruses or attacks from the sky? A city full of scared people (or even worse a country) is not a nice place to be. The fear sets up an erratic energy that can move in very strange ways. I’m not worrying about swine flu (although I am washing my hands more). I’m not worrying about anything that I can’t do something about. If it comes to my town I’ll do whatever I can to get through it. Live each day to the fullest, I say. All we have is today.


Here's today's photo for Ruby Tuesday. It's the sun on the flowering currant in my back yard.

Now I’m going to feed my dogs.

4 comments:

  1. By the time this pandemic is over, those of use who didn't die with swine flu will die of information overload.

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  2. The photo is gorgeous!

    As for the flu, maybe it won't be this one, but something is going to get around and wipe out a whole bunch of us; that's nature! Hope this isn't "The One."

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  3. Amen to that. I'm with you 100 percent. If you'd like an interesting perspective on THE flu, read John Barry's book The Great Influenza. It was fascinating. Just like that flu, this one is impacting people in their 20s and 30s. Go at it from a scientific point of view and you get an entirely new respect for this little bug. When I hear that kind of news on TV, I change the channel. Lately I've been watching a lot of National Geographic and HBO.

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