Live Your Life!

Ahh, the news. We Americans are addicted to it! We subscribe to the paper, visit CNN several times per day, and turn the lights out each night with the evening news still bouncing around our brains.

Sometimes a news story shocks us back to reality.


The tragic death of Steve Irwin has left many feeling a great loss. I believe he may have been a very great man. He lived life, really lived it! I feel horrible for his wife and young children, but I feel dreadful when I consider that Steve may not have been ready to meet his maker. That really saddens me.



Most of the time though, I find the news annoying. Such as the story about Gwen Stephani's new line of dollies for little girls. Yeah, that's really important! Just what every little girl needs, NOT!

Then there is the disturbing story about fingerprinting children.

In the little town of Rome Georgia, also known as, The Enchanted Land, students are now allowed to access their lunch money via their finger print. Yep, that's right, no more brain aneurysm for 8 year old Susie who cannot remember her pin number. Little Marcus and Little Peggy Mae need only to slip their tiny finger onto the scanner and whoosh it's lunch time (or breakfast time, but that's another rant!).

Am I the only one who is astonished that a child who SHOULD BE MEMORIZING multiplication facts, cannot memorize a four digit number? Do these delightful, empty-headed adults realize that they are underestimating an entire generation of children? Talk about the dumbing down of America!

Read it for yourself:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14678017/

For those royal watchers (honey, you really should get a hobby!) we have the birth of Japan's heir. The young prince will save Japan from stepping into the 21 century. For you see, only men are allowed to sit upon the royal throne in Japan. While I send a warm congratulations to Princess Kiko, upon the occasion of her sons birth, I think it's too bad that her daughter's won't have a shot at the throne.

But honestly what does any of this have to do with ME? With any of us? In our little world of toil, what do these breaking news flashes

have to do with life in the semi-mediocre life of middle and lower class America? Aside from the tragic death of one the most influential and amusing environmentalist of our time, everything else is dribble.

Pop stars maintain their stardom by staying in the news. Just ask Brittany what's-her-name. Big brother will continue to monitor and harass mankind as long as mankind exists and women, well, we women will shout for a freedom that we have within our grasps, but do not (can not, will not) fully use.

OUCH!

The news is the news, nothing new nothing old, nothing borrowed, and everything blue. If the only thing you do every day is watch in awed rapture as the sorrow, pain, and strife of mankind unfolds on the evening news, than maybe it's time to read a book or take a walk or actually sit down and talk to someone.

Talk to a stranger at Starbucks or join the library reading group. Play scrabble with the kiddies or makeout in the back seat of your car with that dorky, wonderful guy you've been married to for the past hundred years.

LIVE your life. I think if Steve Irwin had to do it all over again, I'm not sure he'd change much. I believe people like Steve Irwin know something that many of us have forgotten and it is simply this:

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln