Willow eyeing up the carrots.
Recently, I had a conversation with someone I have a great deal of respect for. She is a business person who is smart and knows how to deal with personnel and clients. There is a lot of juggling that goes on in such situations. She handles it mostly with a smile on her face. Not much rattles her.
I call it ‘high functioning’, being able to deal with more than one thing at a time, sometimes more than ten things at at time. Some people are really good at it, she is one.
The other day her and I and a few others entered into a conversation. We talked about some of the recent events in Canadian news. Everyone in the conversation had an opinion except her. She said, she doesn’t listen, read or watch the news.
Now, back when I was growing up this was a form of ignorance which bothered me. In my uneducated world, newspapers and televised news was how a person educated themselves.
She explained, she didn’t want Trump and everything else in the news filling up her brain while there was more important stuff to think about and accomplish.
***
In the same boat.
My good friend Dave and I talk often. We have always laughed about how many children get rides to school, even when they live within walking distance. He says, it’s because we hear about a kid being snatched in some faraway place on the news and we take notice, it’s real, it’s like it happened under our nose, even though it is the safest time in Canada to be a child. We turn vigilant. It takes up space in our mind. It’s why our children have lost the pleasure of walking to school.
***
If I listened to it all, I’d pack it in. Call it. Say uncle. And sometimes I feel like it.
***
The sky is still blue. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it’s dry. The forest catches on fire and banks get chewed away by runoff.
***
Turning.
The moral of this story, if there is one, let your kids walk to school. Teach them to say, ‘fuck you’, when warranted. They are going to have plenty to be pissed about come future.
Palliser Pass 
Jim R
Your friend who ignores the news sounds interesting. I have a few reliable sources I like that give me periodic updates on the important happenings. But, I do not read a lot of the news, watch it, or let it divert me from other things I find fun or valuable. In some ways it is like a soap opera. You can miss watching episodes for a while, come back any time, pick up where you left off. Not much has changed.
One news story I did notice was about your leader Mr. T. It seems his re-election is not assured. I am hopeful our own Mr. T will suffer a defeat in 2020. He is such a poor example of a human being, reflecting the most base qualities of his band of followers. We can do so much better.
We have lots of kids being driven to school here. They should be walking, talking to each other, kicking stones, and being kids. The entrance to school driveways is backed up along the street every morning. Traffic flow is impeded.
LikeLiked by 1 person
underswansea
Hi Jim, it is the same here with the schools – a traffic jam while parents pick up their children. They stand a bigger chance of being hit in the parking lot than being snatched or bullied by the kid down the street.
You are right about news being a lot like a soap opera. We have CNN in Canada and they have gone insane. They only cover Trump, even the mass shootings, once their bread and butter, are given short shrift.
Our Prime Minister could suffer a defeat in October, but I doubt it. The NDP is not doing well and their supporters will back the Liberals. While the Conservatives are offering nothing more than pointing out Trudeau’s shortcomings, which are many, but may not be the best platform to get elected. Trudeau has just been found guilty again of ethics violations in the SNC-Lavalin affair. The joke in Canada is our leader is more corrupt than the US’s, and in some ways the joke is true. As for Trump, although he is a complete boorish buffoon, I will say this for him, he is not killing as many poor people in the Middle East as many other recent US presidents. A case in point was when the Iranians shot down the US drone. The news reported a strike back was planned but Trump halted it saying, killing people was not a measured response to having a drone shot down. This was refreshing compared to the old Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld WMD days.
Take care, wishing you and Melanie the best.
LikeLike
mountaincoward
ha ha – one very true comment – you can certainly miss the news because ‘nothing much changes’ – how true!
I think kids in a group can always walk to school so long as they stick together. We never walked to school on our own – always with mates, brothers/sisters etc. and, due to that, were perfectly safe! We were also taught to cross the roads though – not sure if they do that now…
LikeLiked by 1 person
mountaincoward
I’m in the mainly ‘never watch the news’ camp as I find it depressing (only negative stuff gets reported) and, mainly because, you just can’t do anything about it. It’s all past and you can’t affect it. No point in being depressed about things you can’t affect!
By the way – most women can ‘multi-task’ – I have to at work every day (in the job I’m just about to retire from). The lads I work with can’t do it. An example of it is: I’ll be on the phone having a work conversation… it will be quite long and complicated… when I come off the phone I comment on, or answer questions about all the conversations which were going on external to the phonecall while I was on the phone. The guys ask how I can do that? I tell them I have 2 ears! 😉
LikeLike