I’ve been driving a lot recently, which for me means that I’m listening to NPR all the time. Oh how I love it. But recently, the news is almost always bad, so listening to it constantly is making me want to crawl inside my own personal fear bubble. And that’s no good for anyone. Thankfully Mike brought me home a brand-new CD to listen to in the car. Ok, well, he left it in my car and I haven’t given it back. It’s Mike Viola’s album Lurch, and it’s full of incredibly well-crafted songs that are catchy and often funny and/or up-tempo to boot. It’s not that every song is happy, but every song makes ME feel happy, making it a fantastic alternative to constant analysis of just how bad things are/will be. And I’m so bummed I missed his recent show at Largo – I’ll have to catch it next time.
I know that I cannot hide from bad news forever, and when I’m feeling braver I turn NPR back on. One thing that helped me cope recently was a special on the bank meltdown, “Bad Bank,” on This American Life. The hour-long show somehow made banking entertaining, and it was so helpful to me in terms of really understanding what’s gone on. Granted, understanding things better sometimes made me angrier or more frightened than I was before, but it also somehow made me feel more in control. And to be honest, my commute was over before the very end of it, so I need to hear that myself. I recommend we check out the whole thing together… it’s really worth the 59 minutes of your day.