Inertia

This might seem a bit off the wall, but go along with me here.

I don’t typically watch daytime television (but I listen to the news on the radio). This week I recalled recuperating from an injury a while back when I discovered Rosanne reruns – all afternoon every day.

That was not only a physically painful time, but as is typical, my sister Roan and I were in a turmoil together.

Watching Roseanne helped us laugh at our brand of crazy. We roared over Jackie and Roseanne’s interactions. We relate to that family.

Unlike Leave it to Beaver. Although we had our Eddie Haskells, my family was so not like the Cleavers. But Erin’s was.

So here we are, more decades later than I want to count, Erin comes home from working on Keira’s property – where her two brothers live as caregivers – steam rising from her collar. She was upset about her brothers’ input and critique about her work. Her takeaway statement for me;

“The whole time I was sweating in the yard, they were checking gravity, playing Wii in the garage!”

I confess, I’m a little ashamed at the level of comfort I got from the familiar scenario. But instantly I recalled the Rosanne episode where very drunk Jackie falls on her apartment floor. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. Once aright Jackie said,

“Whoa, there’s gravity all over here!”

I also remembered Roan leaping over the back of the sofa and landing inelegantly between the couch and the coffee table. No help at all. Back then I was initially startled, then relieved the old girl wasn’t hurt, but then we laughed together saying,

“Forget gravity, we got inertia goin’ on here!”

Still biting my lip in the present I scanned my memories for something awful so I wouldn’t inappropriately laugh out loud at Erin.

I’m very familiar with sibling rivalry at its best – and sometimes worst. From my perspective I get it; Life is scary fleeting. As Keira, who had always appeared timeless, seems to be visibly aging right before our eyes, they’re all freaked out. The guys can’t understand the girls and aim their freak at them – and vice versa.

I also get how pointing out one other’s short-comings and mistakes comes easy. Searching beyond them can be tricky when we push love and respect to the back of the shelf.

There’s nothing funny about this past week. From my twisted family, in my mind today comparing the family of man and the horrors in Baton Rouge, Saint Paul, and now Dallas to Erin’s family is not that far a stretch. We’re all hurting, not sure what’s actually what, except that people died. Their lives are over.

Without a huge shove of love, this fearsome inertia will tear our family apart.

It’s all about making good choices. My choice going into the weekend is peace – love – family.

 

“Where do you think your fighting and endless conflict come from? Don’t you think that they originate in the constant pursuit of gratification that rages inside each of you like an uncontrolled militia?” James 4:1 (The Voice)

 

Free Rosanne image courtesy, QUOTESGRAM
Free Leave it to Beaver image courtesy Fame Focus

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What’s Going On?

I wonder often about the news media and what they think they’re doing. Today I consider ways they can make the world a better place in the middle of all the madness (spinning off from my theory of doing the next right thing).

Weeks ago, for the first time in too long a law enforcement representative refused to glorify a criminal by speaking his name in the news report. Scant weeks later another law enforcement officer took the same stand. It’s a trend I hope flies high and wide.

I like to believe today’s journalists across the board want to report what’s happening in the world, report events accurately, as they happen as much as they ever have. Conspiracy theories aside, I sincerely pray for the reporters/anchors/bloggers I follow. Theirs can easily become a hazardous occupation. I don’t imagine anybody assigning blame for getting caught up in the ratings, Facebook likes, and blog stats, but let’s consider how those figures weigh in against our need for actual facts as compared to opinion.

I notice often that stories often don’t make the newscasts until months after the fact. That said, I also understand the information highway and especially social media complicate most everything, so that law enforcement is also more challenged to do the job effectively, successfully more than ever before. People randomly circulate rumors, many propagating attitude over actual facts. Less dogmatic individuals read them and adopt their opinions based on that limited tidbit of information. Such can hinder, hamper or otherwise block the actual facts, contributing more to the problems rather than cures.

Today for example, one of the first stories broadcast on this morning’s local news report is about a mid-20’s to mid-30’s aged man jogging in Eastern Dallas who fell to a random act of violence on Sunday (two days ago) and will not return home to his family. In the heartbreaking news coverage the perpetrators‘ neighbor’s comments comforted me too in the midst of the tragic story.

I firmly believe the news media would be far better served if they stopped self-inflating their ratings by making a bigger deal about victims of random acts of violence, rather than fluffing their stories with expansive details about the perpetrators; those that regardless of their motivation, choose to mark the world with bloodshed. The only actual facts I learned about the case in mention are all about the murderer – not much about the victim, his family and his community.

That messed up trend has become too common, especially in the news. Granted, we need to be aware of the violence and dangers all around us, but for people’s sake, we also need random acts of kindness going on as well.