This posting has a twofold purpose: to update you on my health and to tell you about my news-fast.
Re: Health:
In late September, after the seasonal change, the barometric pressure seemed to calm—here in Missouri—its precipitous ups and downs. Because of that the Meniere’s symptoms have been in abeyance. I have the occasional mild headache, but it is simply a short drizzle compared to the storm of a Meniere’s headache.
I cannot truly explain what this means with regard to my ability to think clearly, prioritize, make decisions, and respond with some coherence to the questions of others. I am feeling equal to life again, and I hope to begin reading blogs again and working on my writing.
Re: News-fast:
One aspect of my calm is that I’ve been fasting from politics since Monday, September 21. RBG died on Friday the 18th. I spent the weekends reading the New York Times articles about her, viewing the DVD film “RBG,” and watching the television news anchors eulogize her.
On Sunday night, I sat against my bed headboard, reading a NYT’s article on her life. Next, I read an NYT’s opinion column on how her death would probably change the make-up of the Supreme Court and three impeding cases.
An overwhelming emotion roiled within me. Closing my eyes, I tried to get in touch with it. First came anger. I let myself feel it. Then I plunged deeper into the recesses of my psyche. Still as a statue, I discovered a profound and abiding sorrow over the changes in our culture, which I’d witnessed in the past fifty years.
I’m not going to detail those changes here, but I saw so much isolation and self-absorbed individualism that I found myself sobbing in the deep center of myself where Oneness dwells.
It was then that I decided to fast from the news of the day. No viewing of the television news or the Facebook political raves or rants. No reading of the New York Times on my computer. No talking with friends and family about what is happening politically—and for me, almost everything is, in some way, political.
I decided to fast for seven weeks—until the election of November 3. Depending on its outcome and the consequences (domestic terrorism), I’d then decide whether to resume my normal “keeping-up-with-what-is-happening” attitude or not.
Since leaving the convent, I’ve been what my uncle once called “a politic junkie.” For the past five weeks, I’ve been in rehab. I’ve “cold-turkey-ed” political news. Well, to be truthful, once each week, I called someone and asked for one tidbit of news.
Here are the five tidbits I’ve learned in five weeks: 1) in the first debate the president yelled a lot; 2) the president had COVID and was in the Walter Reed Hospital for a few days and he now says he’s immune; 3) a fly landed on the head of the vice-president during his debate; 4) the woman who’s been selected to replace RBG is a strict constructionist or an “originalist” (I think that’s the word my friend said); 5) COVID is on the upswing in quite a number of states.
Okay. Five things I know from the past five weeks. Believe me, I have little to talk about to anyone who calls. I’m downright boring.
I have two weeks to go on my news-fasting. And really that’s nothing compared to the eight-and-a-half years in the convent when I heard no news at all. I’ve spent these weeks feeling grateful for my life. I am so fortunate in so many ways.
Peace, pressed down and overflowing, to all of you who have read these words.
