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Can we be happy despite the New Orleans disaster?
I was chatting to someone this week who asked “How can we be happy given the devastation recectly wrought by hurricane Katrina?”. My response was carefully consisered.
I believe that this is one of the most distressing stories of the year, if not longer. I’ve heard of things happening that are truly shocking and of lives, undoubtedly many lives, completely ruined.
But at the same time, we can be happy we weren’t there; we can be happy most survived; we can be happy that many helped others; and we can be happy that most will rebuild their lives.
The fact that there was loss of life and loss of possessions and even loss of humanity is not something any of us should revel in or feel pleased with. But to continue a common them of late, we can be grateful for what we have, for what others have, and we can do whatever we can to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, September 6th, 2005 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Happy Tips.
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September 6th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
one major thing we can do is, after watching it and acknowledging it, just turn off the television when the news is on, stop reading the same articles that are in the newspaper day in and day out…….. You’re not denying that it’s happening, you just don’t want to be bombarded 24/7. Unfortunately we live in an age where this can happen. You’re not ignoring them for the wrong reasons - i’d say you’re ignoring them for the RIGHT reason.
Use this analogy - if you’re an alcoholic and want to minimise the temptations around you so that you stop thinking of alcohol, you remove all alcohol and related paraphenalia from your environment. If you don’t want to be bombarded with the negative news around you, do like the alcoholic and just keep away from the news.
I know the effect of the news ever since I fell asleep a few minutes before the news went on one day. I dreamt of bombing in our house here in Sydney and our bodies were actually flying out of the window. It was only that afternoon that I knew the truth - there had been bombing in the news that was playing while I was sleeping. Ever since this happened I don’t watch or listen to the news.