…or is it?

I know I need to stop watching the news so much.

I know it isn’t good for my health.

And yet the urge to tune in to the next bit of craziness, the next bit of ‘Oh no, what’s he doing now?’ is often too strong to resist.

Last weekend a guy shot himself to death in front of the White House, and it barely received a mention in the news.

It reminded me of those Tibetan monks that would set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule.

A desperate last act of ‘I can’t take it any more’.

And when we hear of another mass shooting, it’s like ‘at least it was only two people’ or ‘three’, then a shrug and go on your way.

I was watching the news the other evening and my son asked, “Why bother?”

And I thought, ‘he’s right’, but I said, “You have to know what’s happening.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“We’re Canadian, it doesn’t effect us.”

“We live next to them so it does.”

And then he told me about a guy he met, some American who had relocated up here, who said the average person in the States doesn’t care who’s in charge. They’re too busy just scrounging out a living.

And I thought that’s probably true, and yet that’s why we have these inept people in charge.

I confess watching Stephen Colbert, and the cold openings of Saturday Night Live and even Michael Che with the Weekly report on SNL makes me feel a bit better. (although the rest of Saturday Night Live is boring and not funny)

Them poking at the absurdity of everything that is happening, makes me feel better.

But why?

It doesn’t change anything.

But it makes me feel, yes, I’m not the only one who feels this way, they get it too.

Misery likes company I guess.

And I said to my son, “You don’t remember what normal politics is.”

And yet it wasn’t that long ago, surely.

This is completely un-normal and yet it is becoming the ‘new normal’.

So how do you keep your sanity.

Actually it seems to me that a guy like Trump in charge was long overdue. People in privilege aren’t going to give up that favored spot in society so easily.

I’ve actually been waiting for the blow back for a while now, and this is it, I think.

The way I handle the chaos is with my faith. I keep telling myself, ‘This is all within God’s plan.’

And deep within, something tells me, don’t focus on it. Focus on what YOU can change.

In my little corner of the world, I take care of my family, the people I love, and I keep striving towards producing better stories.

That I can do.

Watching the plethora of superhero movies out there, it occurs to me that doing some grandiose act of courage is not hard.

It comes with the admiration of millions of lives you’ve saved, blah blah blah.

But it’s the daily grind that’s hard. It’s the struggling through doubt and adversity, the picking up of pieces and the support of the people who need you, when there’s no public adulation involved. It’s the persevering when you’re tired in the quiet knowledge that you’re fulfilling your responsibilities that’s what’s hard.

And then I thought of all the people who do not believe in God, who have no faith, who live their lives with the concept that every move can either make or break them. Ooh, how would they survive?

When I’ve worked hard with nothing to show for it, I can fall back on the concept that what is meant for me will come, and that which I’d been working for was obviously not in God’s plan for me.

I can shrug it off and keep on trying, but what would it be like to think that your success or failure lies only on your own abilities???

No wonder so many people live with anxiety.

But do I need to join them?

No, I do not.

Alhamdu lillah, I can keep on working towards the things I want, and be grateful for all the things I have.

That I can even make a living doing what I love, there is great blessing in that!

So in answer…how do I keep sane?

I focus on what I can directly effect: my family, my work, and I trust the rest to God.

We will get through this.

Be patient.

It’s all part of God’s plan.

There is a reason for it, we just can’t see it yet.