The Trump Shall Resound: The Difficulty of Consuming Media in Today’s Age
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Consuming media nowadays is stressful. The right, the left, and even folks in the middle seem to be convulsed with anger. The news is enraging — or possibly fake — the media stinks, everyone hates each other, bombs are falling, giraffes are endangered, life is terrible, beer and red meats cause cancer…
At the center of the storm, of course, there’s The Trump. He of imprudent, unblushing bluster. He of “unpresidented” inanity and foreign policy flapdoodle. He who contorts our venerable media institutions into manic little pretzels on a nightly basis trying to explain what in tarnation is happening.
The issue is, how do we stay informed without becoming a bunch of sclerotic, cynical, sullen, somber sadsacks? How do you strike a balance between educating yourself and not letting the news affect your mental well-being.
Spoiler alert: I don’t know. But, my strategy for the new year is to be more intentional, proactive, and selective about the media I choose to consume, and to think often about Horatio G. Spafford’s “It Is Well with My Soul.”
“Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.”
In November 1873, Spafford helped his wife, Anna, and four daughters board the SS Ville du Havre steamship, bound for Europe. The original plan was for the whole family to travel together, but he was delayed by a last-minute business matter and stayed behind. Tragically, the Ville du Havre struck another ship in the middle of his family’s journey and sank. Two hundred and twenty-six people who were on board perished, including all four Spafford daughters. Anna was one of the ship’s few survivors.