My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, created a host of careers for the characters in the society from which I hail, but she can't wave the magic pen and create jobs for her friends who are looking for work in your society. After speaking with one of these friends, she started to explain something to me. War, high gas and food prices, a housing market meltdown, record unemployment numbers, etc. make the headlines—and have been making the headlines for years. The mass media bombards already stressed people with constant negativity, constant gloom-and-doom.
You can't turn on the television or radio without hearing some negative political ad frightening middle-class America about their health benefits or some negatively charged news story trying to out-sensationalize the "other station's" negatively charged news story. A local job fair drew 11 employers and more than 700 job seekers one weekday afternoon and the local news stations couldn't stop emphasizing how this was a harbinger of doom for the area…and with three more hours of the job fair to go!
But the television and radio aren't the only culprits feeding your society's stress. The front page of newspapers flash the latest business closings and County job cuts, leading above the fold with headlines that state the number of people losing their jobs for the sake of saving taxpayer dollars. You can't fire up your e-mail server without seeing headlines that tell of war, death totals, the latest victims in corporate scandals, etc.
It's enough to drive an already stressed out person over the edge. (Sandy would be an already stressed out person, by the way.) It's enough to make you want to unplug all devices that can receive a signal.
What brought this to her mind was a job interview one of her friends went on. It was at a rehab center. THAT place is hiring. THAT place is at capacity. THAT place needs more employees to handle the influx of disturbed, substance-abusing people who seek medical attention to help them through this troubled time.
And that's a shame.
What has this society come to when stress is so great that, as a community, people are falling apart? It will be so wonderful when the elections are over and the political crap can stop. It will be wonderful when the eventual upswing in the economy takes place. It will be wonderful when people stop listening to the constant bombardment of crap and start accepting that there are good things going on around them, too. Won't it be a great day when there's so much good news that the local news station will have no choice but to lead with a good news story?
In the meantime, Sandy encourages you to try to look on the bright side of life. (She also suggests a great fantasy novel at this Amazon page to take you out of reality for a while.) She posts inspirational quotes at her main blog every morning and tries to give fun, light, creative writing ideas there. She says we can't bury our heads in the sand (wait…what? How would you breathe? Oh, well, it's a strange colloquialism!) …we can't bury our heads in the sand, but we can shut out some of the negativity, focus on the positives and uplifting things around us, and wait out the tough times together.
Looking forward to a great news day,
Nigel Taiman
Tags: employment, economy, headlines, inspirational quote
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1 comment:
We all need to concentrate on how we would like our lives TO BE, not on how it is NOW. If we don't, we lose hope, and if we lose hope, well, then all is lost.
We are a country that invented flight, then space travel. We have eliminated diseases, brought food and water to countries where their own supplies were gone. We have suffered much in the wars we have waged overseas, but we all need to remember this is OUR country. It is up to us how OUR country will get through this.
And we can do that by voting on Tuesday.
Laura :)
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