To mark the 20th of January, I entered a 24-hr self-imposed media fast. If you've never done it, you'd be surprised how much news outlets, the TV, radio, and social media permeates our lives.
My mornings start with the enriching and often entertaining tune-in to NPR. Friday is the day featuring Story Corps, and when Science Friday and many of my favorite shows come on. But this morning: no. Instead, I queued up my Spotify play list. I was rewarded with hearing my favorite tunes as an early-morning wake-up.
During the day, I was tempted to post to social media the photos from the "solidarity walk/march" I took around noon with good friends and new acquaintances. I saved the photos for later and tried to enjoy just the moment when my chilled hands waved to passersby and got a wave or thumbs-up in return.
At lunch, we dined with some of our closest friends on Indian food and I didn't even feel the pangs of deprivation when I couldn't Instagram the colorful and nourishing food on my plate or when I failed to "check-in". We laughed about protest signs, shared our appreciation for the simplest things like our vision and good health, and discussed plans for the weekend.
Arriving home, I nearly reached for the radio to hear about the happenings of the day, finding that to be a good way to catch up on the latest. Again, I accessed my music files instead and listened to some vintage Bob Marley, some anthems by The Who and a song by the Mountain Goats entitled "This Year" that has a line: "I am going to make it through this year if it kills me" and I thought about the four years ahead.
At the close of the day with no media bombardment, I confirmed something I had not expected: things will be OK after all. Things will get scary. Things will go wrong. Life will be uncertain. Life will be simply beautiful. I will write letters. I will carry signs. We will protest when things are unfair. We will rejoice when humanity prevails. Because it will. It must.
