SHALL WE GET COMFORTABLE?

How much of chance a part of our destiny?

Haven't you ever said, "Oh, I didn't know she/he died" - "When did that movie come out?" - "Why, is there a war going on there?" We miss two day's worth of news while on vacation - we haven't been to the cinema lately - the local papers only have a page and half devoted to international news.

We have an extremely narrow viewpoint of life. We are exposed to the news that is deemed 'newsworthy' by certain editorial process - why would anyone want to know more about the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo... unless you have a friend who lived there until last year. Did any national magazine mention the number of homicides in Naples this past year? Is there any interest in earthquakes in the southern rim of India?

It may sound like I am decrying this lack of information, but I fully acknowledge that we can only cope with a limited amount of information. Our communication avenues are so broad they are overwhelming with facts, details and trivia; we are not capable of processing all of it.

So a literal suppression of certain news is necessary for the non-specialist public to not wallow in information deluge.

I agree - in fact, I avoid the regular news like the plague. It may be true, but it's depressing, and if I can't do anything about it, I don't want to know about it.

So what is the point this crazy lady is trying to make (if she is actually trying to make any point at all!)?

My oldest daughter seems to be the one who turns on the lights for me - introduces me to blogging, to the iPhone, music, and (now we are finally get to something) some MOVIES. We sat together last night and today and watched "Mrs. Henderson Presents," a BBC movie that I had never heard of and would have never seen except to her getting it on Netflix.

It was hysterical. And poignant. And includes a full frontal shot of Bob Hoskins that I doubt you will see any where else.

How different would my life be if I had never been exposed to that?!