“Of course, the news has a way of scattering your brain regardless of when you catch up on it. In 1852, Henry David Thoreau complained in his diary that he had started reading a weekly newspaper and he felt that now he wasn’t paying enough attention to his own life and work. “It takes more than a day’s devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day,” he wrote. “To read of things distant and sounding betrays us into slighting these which are then apparently near and small.” He decided his attention was too valuable, and gave up reading the weekly Tribune. Some 166 years after Thoreau complained about the weekly newspaper, I find that reading the Sunday paper is a healthy compromise: pretty much all the news I need to be an informed citizen.”
Austin Kleon, Keep Going, 2019
The news comes at us at a pace that is unprecedented. In Thoreau’s time, it was weekly, then daily, then with the advent of cable television, it became 24 hours. With the web, it’s constant.
Take a step back. Take a breath. Being an informed citizen is important; however so is your peace of mind.
“Let’s slow down, not in pace or wordage but in nerves.”
John Steinbeck
