My newspapers sit, mostly unread, in a heap on the kitchen table or a chair or the floor.
After years of listening all day, every day, I don't listen to NPR any more, as Z now hears and understands so much, and there is so much I wish to shield her from.
I only turn on the TV to watch something specific on the DVR and I haven't watched the local or national news in years.
I get most of my news from two-day-old Daily Shows.
I live in a bubble.
When the earthquake in Haiti happened, I found out about it on Facebook. Why are all these people suddenly updating about praying for the people of Haiti?
I still haven't seen many images or heard many stories and I'm okay with that. My brain is like a three year old's: images haunt my dreams for days afterward, stories that happen to someone else far away often feel like they are happening to me, right here, right now.
Z isn't the only one whose brain is in need of protection.
But what little I have heard and what little I have seen about the devastation in Haiti is horrific. Moving. Desperate.
I didn't mean to cheapen or belittle the situation by linking it to Delurking Day. And I was so excited to read about your favorite charities, though I was often moved to tears by some of the stories on the charities' websites. There are so many groups doing such great work.
Specific numbers be damned, I am donating $100 to the Red Cross for their relief efforts.
I am also donating $100 to the charity that the most people listed in my comments yesterday: Doctors Without Borders. I couldn't have picked a single 'favorite', not after reading about the important work they do at St. Jude's or looking at the pictures on Smile Train's website or thinking about women suffering from fistulas in Ghana.
I am still happy to be in a bubble and I am committed to staying in it for my own sanity. I realize how very lucky I am to be able to live such a protected and gentle life. I just wish there was more I could do for those who aren't so fortunate.
8 comments:
Oh my yes. Very soon after Addy was born it became apparent to both Jim and I that I was going to have to live in a bubble for the sake of my emotions. Every little news story and I would be a teary mess.
And I too, found out about Haiti via blog and not by listening to the radio or checking CNN.com daily like normal people.
Yes yes yes yes. The bubble. Yes. I live there too.
I live in a bubble too- I heard about it on facebook first, too. I mean, Law and Order images can throw me for days/weeks/YEARS. I file every horrible thing I see away in my brain- very neatly- so that I can recall each and every image perfectly and play them each back over and over.
I have looked at a few of the photo galleries (on Washington Post, I think). I just feel like, to honor them, I need to see it, to feel it, to understand how very lucky I've been in my own life.
Also, did someone say you were cheapening it by linking on delurking day? I would have NEVER taken your post that day as anything but respectful, worried, trying-to-do-something.
I wish I could live in a bubble so many times a day. Working for a newspaper makes it difficult. My husband is a crime reporter and we have yet to figure out how we will explain what he does to our daughter.
Thank you for making your donations.
I've lived in a bubble since Alex was born. I just can't handle reading and hearing about all the horrible things out there that could affect him.
Like Michelle, I'm a reporter, so the bubble usually is impossible. But on maternity leave, I've retreated there gladly.
since kids i don't watch network news, i only put on news for blip updates on specific goings on. (election/LA fires/haiti) I can no longer handle kidnappings, murders, crime, people suffering, sickness, children suffering etc. I no longer watch very dramatic tv shows, still don't watch horror movies. I've become so selective, carefully crafting my bubble around me to keep me sane and my kids from dealing with life's horrors at a young age.
It's sad that the news lately has become so wretched that I can't put on NPR even for a minute without hearing all the day's horror stories. so yes, like your Z, P is understanding everything and just doesn't need that in her life yet. I don't need it either even at my age.
Us, too - our kids pretty much only watch pre-recorded shows that have been parent-approved. Even 'safe' networks sometimes have things on them that makes my hair curl, and Josie is old enough now that they pique her interest, and she'll hover on them for awhile.
I have only recently started listening to the news on the radio with the kids in the car, but only the short bursts, not longer shows. They're both old enough now that I'm comfortable with their ability to process limited information about the world. For years, though, I was floating along in the same bubble!
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