Off the wire.

Off the wire.

For as long as I can remember I have awakened in the morning with “CBS News on the Hour”, until it became more advertising and less news. I then switched to NPR. Every morning I knew all about the world before getting out of bed to start the day.

Last Sunday in Charlotte, my radio came on as it does every day during the week at 4:00 AM and weekends at 5:00AM. As soon as it came on, I sat up in bed and reached for the radio and turned it off. I do not knower why or what made me do that, but suddenly I realized I was always waking up, listening to all the bad news before the day had even started. It set the mood of my day by knowing how oil prices were being speculated to hit the sky and all the news that was blown out of proportion and magnified to make it news-worthy.

I got up and went for my morning walk in Charlotte, NC. Since I do not have the daily California-one-hour-AM drive here, I walk in the morning rather than at night. However, there is something so beautiful in the evenings in Charlotte that I often walk twice daily.

It was a great walk with my Ipod , listening to the music, and not knowing what had happened the day before or what was expected of the day to come.

We are so connected these days that we are letting the “wire” decide what the tone of the day is supposed to be.

In the old days, before CNN, FOX and Headline news became 24 hours of repeating the same news over and over, we had nightly CBS, NBC and ABC news. People came home, had dinner, and then listened to all the bad news at the end of the day. Fortunately, a good night’s sleep erased all the negative effects it had, if any.

This does not mean we should completely disconnect and not know what is going on around us. Rather, we should choose to delay it until we are charged up so we can set our own state of mind rather then having the “wire” feed us the junk we crave daily by listening to these reporters.

So I have changed my daily routine. I am now waking up to music and do not give a care about the news until I am on my way to work.

As Vonnegut the novelist, essayist (1922-2007) said, “The most beautiful thing in life is music, because you cannot touch or see, but feel the beauty that is coming from it.”

So do not let the wire be your guide, but let it be just another medium that can be ignored at least for a short while in the morning. You can be sure it will change the mental and emotional direction of your day toward the positive.