A Better Day

This has been a tough week. A REALLY tough week. We’ve been pummeled, beat and smacked around by bad news.

First, the week started with the horrifying Boston Marathon bombing. We watched the explosion on our TVs, saw blood splattered across the sidewalk and mourned as we learned about the victims of this senseless murder. Then last night, a Mississippi man was arrested for allegedly sending ricin-tainted letters to Senator Wicker, Judge Holland and President Obama. We cringed as our state’s name was once again drug through the mud. And then to add icing to a really crappy news cake, we watched a small Texas town obliterated by a massive fertilizer plant explosion.  The images coming out of West, Texas look like a scene straight from Hell.  Now the forecast is for severe weather tonight. Oh joy.

My Twitter feed looks like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’s inbox.

I got back in from my predawn run with the weight of the world on my shoulders. I stopped, took a sip of water and said to my wife, “I’ve been in the news business for over 20 years and this week is one of the worst I can remember. But you know, times aren’t any worse now than they have been in the past. Can you imagine having 24-hour Cable News and Twitter 150 years ago? “Over 26,000 casualties today in the battle of Shiloh today. Yellow Fever is wiping out small towns all across America.” We’d be freaking out! I guess bad news will always be with us. It’s just that we’re now getting a steady diet of it instantly.”

She nodded and said, “It’s no wonder half the country is on medication.”

Before I got ready to go to work, I kissed her goodbye, hugged the boys and watched them drive off to school. I then turned off the news, sat down and began to make a list.  On the top of that list, I wrote: “Good things in my life.”  And then I began to write.

After a couple of pages, I paused, read over the sheet and closed the little book I was writing in.  I watched the sun rise and said a prayer of thanks.

Today will be a better day.  It has to be.