Women Over Fifty—I’m Mad as Heck!
You probably guessed it: I’m a woman over fifty who’s feeling more than a bit crotchety about certain things, and I’m way past the age of sweetly demurring and deferring. My feisty is a-risin’ and my spirit is spunky. In fact, I feel like an old broad on a mouthy mission to spread the news.
Okay, okay—it isn’t breaking news. Actually, this time, I’d like to break the news!
For some time, I’ve grown weary of all the dreary and depressing dribble that springs from the mouths of countless talking heads. We all know the mantra: the market is a mess, the world suffers from heat exhaustion, generations to come will curse us, and, if all that isn’t bad enough, the terrorists are hunkering down just waiting to get us. But, as disheartening as those terrible predictions, it all came to a boil for me late last week.
I was watching the morning news when one anchor spoke the words I will never forget: “DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME CAN KILL YOU!” What?!!!
Yes, she hadn’t enough with reporting various imminent wars in the Middle East, local murders, and the fact that everyone’s 401K is in the tank, now we have to be deathly afraid of Daylight Savings Time. And, to back up her claim, she interviewed a doctor who reported that lack of sleep leads to heart failure and that “springing forward” might well be a death sentence. (Actually, for me, it might be. I could feel my blood pressure rise to astronomical heights with every word that sprang from her lips.)
What are these people thinking? Enough! I don’t know who came up with the rule that bad news sells. He’s probably the same guy who proposed the edict that, in order to win a political election, you have to run negative campaign ads that deride your opponent’s intellect and character.
From all that I’ve read on the topic, people who are optimistic and hold positive thoughts live far longer, healthier lives. So why do we allow these nay-sayers and predictors of doom and gloom into our living rooms every night? I, for one, have had it. In fact, I’m going back to the words of wisdom in the film “Network.” Remember the character who advocated leaning out your window and screaming, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Well, that would be me and I’m looking for some feisty friends to shout right along with me!
Forget “no news is good news.” Nowadays, “no news is a blessing beyond belief!”
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November 2nd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Well done, Eileen! I love this little piece. And I’m happy to hear you’ve nixed the news from your life. It isn’t really news at all, is it? It’s just a bunch of baloney that keeps the masses in bondage…with fear. Thanks for reminding the world!
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Looks like you hit on a nerve!
I have no problem saying I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!
You are so right. It doesn’t matter which channel you watch–they have all bought into the idea that only bad news is news. I use Twitter news, online news, and occasionally the TV news.
I need a positive frame of mind for my business and have chosen to limit the news in this house!
March 18th, 2009 at 4:51 am
Love your thoughts on this one and I too agree big time. I’ve not had the television news on for weeks now because of the doom and gloom. I sometimes even turn NPR off when they go down the road of the sky is falling. If the law of attraction is real–and I believe it is–then why in the world would we want to focus on and stay in such negative vibes?
I’m looking for the good in this reversal of all we held dear and thought was true. I know everyone on this page is as well. The more light we bring the less dark can encompass those we touch. Isn’t that powerful?
Here’s to the powerful women in the world–feisty for the future!
March 16th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
A bit side-topic, but do you remember Y2K-remember the world was going to come to an end. The news had us all hunkered down for the absolute end of time. And then, it just came and went, didn’t it? The good thing about our age is we have perspective! Good post…
http://igrewup.wordpress.com
March 16th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I have to agree. I stopped sitting down to watch the news a while ago. I get the updates on the evening TV and for about a minute on the radio in the car if I’m running late for work – and I buy the Sunday paper. Surely there are great things happening in the world. Surely instead of reporting on stories of crises threatening to defeat people (with the media’s help) there are stories of people defeating crises that the media could report. And there are such stories. One site offering good news stories is http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ Lets hope mainstream media catch on.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I agree. I’ve had it up to the tip top of my head. Lets report some positive news. I’ve said time and time again, my grandparents came through the great depression making money. We can do the same right now with hard work and positive attitude. It is time to take a stand.
March 15th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Amen! I used to be a regular news-junkie. But I got so tired of listening to all the gloom and doom, sensationalized crap every day that I rarely watch it anymore. If we believed everything the media told us we should all just curl up in a little ball in the corner somewhere and wait for the world to end.
Hats off to you for having the guts to stand up and say enough is enough!
March 15th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I can so relate girlfriend! I haven’t actually yelled out my window (yet!), but I’ve certain had similar thoughts.
March 15th, 2009 at 5:57 am
I don’t mind hearing the truth, but I do object to doom and gloom for its own sake. We all would like to think there are other things to talk about.
March 15th, 2009 at 5:10 am
I’ve been ranting about the media and it’s slide down into info-tainment since I started my Brat in the Hat blog. It was a little way for me to vent but I noticed more and more I was carping about the news and just how unworthy the news is!
I even started off the new year with just one simple request, I asked the news media to shut up about the old crap.
Thoughts and words have power and I agree that we should stop using that power to engender fear – maybe we should start a petition right here to tell the media to cut out the crap.
I agree with your other readers here – TURN OFF YOUR TELEVISIONS until the news media remembers how to report news and not foment disaster.
March 14th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Eileen, I can’t even turn around anymore without someone spouting some sort of negative comment about the world in general. It’s so frustrating for those of us who like to walk through the world with our glasses half full!
I can only take a few minutes of the news a day, and then I have to be so careful not to let it affect me permanently. I have to have that undercurrent of letting it “be” … I don’t know if it’s living with “rose-colored” glasses or what, but I have to keep a positive outlook, for my own sanity.
I’m not going to take it either. None of us should! Good for you for shouting it out!
March 14th, 2009 at 9:55 am
As someone who spent more than 25 years in the news, I can really appreciate what you’ve written here. We as journalists have a tendancy to “hype” everything. The attitude is if it isn’t shock and awe you won’t watch the news–so good news becomes irrelevant. Since I left television I hardly watch the news anymore and if I do, I do so with a critical eye because I know the real deal from the inside–out.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Amen, Sister! The best advice I ever heard from a financial analyst? TURN OFF THE TELEVISION! No one is advocating denial – but at least allow yourself the luxury of hearing your own voice. If you can hear laughter, then it isn’t all gloom and doom.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:22 am
I can’t agree with you more Eileen. It’s utterly exhausting. What gets me is how these people can take off their microphones and put down their notes to go off and lead a normal life.
How do they do that when they’ve been peddelers of gloom and doom?
I love to listen to Glenn Beck, but since he began on Fox he has just become a lunatic! I can’t figure out how someone can immerse themselves in such negativity and not keel over from cardiac arrest.
It just get ridiculous. I find that if I turn off the television for a few hours a day and listen to the silence or simply play my piano, life shifts and I’m not walking around with knots in my stomach or ready to plot an assination of some member of Congress or the president.
March 13th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Crazy thing, all the resources are still here. If we were back in the days were everyone was self-employed, apprenticed to someone etc. lay offs won’t happen. If more positive things were said, it’d change things somewhat.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Here here! I saw that morning report and thought the same thing. How about a little good and positive news for a while? How about spending some time digging up things to report about how the citizens of this nation are trying to stimulate the economy?
I read one woman’s answer to someone who mentioned the recession. She said that she wasn’t participating in that. I love that attitude. If we would all adopt it and turn off the gloom and dooom on the boob tube, we would be a lot better off. We would be happier, more positive, and would get busy doing our part, instead of looking for a governmental hand out, bail out, sell out…whatever you want to brand it.
March 13th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I use the power of the OFF button on the remote–a lot! I find that helps me stay centered in the truth as I know it. Life has ups and downs. The economy and every other part of it is cyclical. Negativity spreads like wildfire. Positivity is a balm and is equally contagious. The choice is between fear and love, another word for togetherness. (People helping each other.) If I panic, I spark the fire. I choose close friends very carefully with qualities of optimism, compassion, the and the ability to see the good and potential even in our darkest hour. The human spirit is so much bigger than reports of doom and gloom. We need more light (daylight savings time) of another kind, the light that “dawns” on more of humanity that we create most of our experience. Keep the vision, and remember, being positive is a “plus” (+).
March 13th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I couldn’t agree more. I wish we could outlaw all the doom and gloom news or at least treat it like a political campaign where both sides get equal air time.
I AM encouraged that so many people are responding like yourself – with a refusal to buy in and an invitation to engage in a different kind of conversation.
So here’s my good news – I saw my first robin this morning and the cardinals are singing their love songs. Spring can’t be far behind with warmer days and gardening. That means I can get outdoors and stop listening to the Talking Heads.
March 13th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Eileen, I hear ya, gurlfriend! I think it’s up to each of us to raise consciousness, to focus on the good (no, I’m not advocating denial, just not buying into ways of spinning matter-of-fact stuff into gloom-and-doom!). Your example is one reason I seldom watch the news or read newspaper headlines. Somehow I always stay current and learn what’s going on, but I refuse to get caught up in drama that is used simply to hold my attention until someone thinks of some new drama to lay on me until the next…Well you get my drift. Perhaps that’s one of the examples we Feisty Women can set for those young whippersnappers. That gloom begets gloom and bloom begets bloom (Spring’s about to burst forth in Georgia, can you tell?!?!). Again, not to live in a state of denial, but rather to live in a state of appreciation and positive awareness.
Diana
http://woofersclub.blogspot.com
htto://basicblackblog.blogspot.com
March 13th, 2009 at 7:19 am
I can’t tell you how much I agree. My husband is in the auto sales business, and it’s BAD right now, and made worse by all the negative news. People are petrified to spend a penny because of all the doom and gloom “reporting.” I think one of the worst things to happen to our society was when news turned into Big Business open 24/7.