Month: July 2009

Sunday Morning

Quiet. Sunny. And, fresh coffee.

No newspaper this morning.

Don’t really miss it anyway as most news comes to me via the Net these days. I would seriously consider dropping the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle altogether except that the Husband enjoys reading the Sporting Green. (We stopped getting the daily issues years ago when the suburban delivery failed to arrive before we had to leave for our commute.)

It is not that we no longer support news organizations and expect to get our information for “free.” We both have paid subscriptions to the WSJ. I also pay for digital subscriptions to The Nation and Salon.com. I have at least 40 sources of free news in my bookmarks that I peruse every morning over coffee. Everything from Google to Politico to AlterNet as well as many professional blogs. I think I am more informed than ever. When I see an article that brings up something I am not familiar with, I can do a quick “background check” to get up to speed. Sometimes it can feel like almost too much information. But I would not go back to the “old” way willingly.

Most television news is unwatchable and inaccurate IMO. The days of watching Walter Cronkite and knowing you were informed are long gone. And, now with his death, there is no one living who will tell it like it is on that particular medium. Which is why I head over to the nearest browser to read people like Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan and sites like Media Matters and FactCheck.org for clarification of the headlines and the secrets behind them.

Yes, there are days I cannot bear to see one more headline regarding the darling Ms Sarah. There does seem to be this tendency to excess on the Web, no excuses there. Still it is difficult seeing the newspaper and television news sources ever being more than they have become: mouthpieces for corporate America. (Or is that Corporate america?)

Searching the Net for Sanity

This was a futile exercise! I can find crazies on the left, crazies on the right, crazies claiming to be neither left or right but just plain extreme (think they call themselves libertarian). Surprisingly, I found little calm and considered discourse. A lot of name calling, figurative jumping up and down, obfuscation, errors, misinformation, conspiracy theories, fanaticism, and just plain idiocy.

Not much to brighten one’s Saturday. Perhaps my biggest error was starting all this by searching Google for “who owns the news?” and getting pages and pages and pages of hits with the strangest collection of web sites. Talk about a “he said/he said” world!

I guess it has all come down to this: he who shouts the loudest and longest and gets the most page hits, is the one telling the truth.

Long live truth.

ARGHHHHHHH

Rite of Passage 1957

Remember when you studied so hard, so vehemently
to win the heart of god hidden in Luther’s words.

You and other middle schoolers huddled around the pastor every Saturday morning.
Scrambling for understanding, searching for truth.

Then, sitting in front of the Congregation. Holding your breath.

What will he ask of you? Will your answer be true?
13 and on trial for your soul.

Somehow, you survive the test. And let out a sigh.

Anticipation of your first taking of the Host, your initiation into the Mystery.

Unleavened bread sticking to the top of your dry mouth and vinegary wine choking your straining throat.

And, then, what is all the fuss?
Transformation should feel like something, right?

Parents hug you, smile and welcome you into the Way.

Was this when you knew? Was this when you grew up? When you realized you could never belong?