A Time for Reflection

One of my favorite reads this year was a book called Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman. He wrote it discussing two books concerning what the future would look like-one proposing over control by governmental bodies and another where people are so distracted there's no need for control. He wrote it around the time the television was first introduced and observed the impact it was having on the culture at large. This set up is getting away from me, but I just really loved the book. 

The much smaller point I'm intending to make is he had a chapter titled "Now This..." and described the nature of the news reporting something terrible and simply moving on to what was next-at times cheerful or entertaining news. He made some really interesting points at the impact of this type of presentation. This type of exposure left people feeling helpless to really take any kind of action in bad situations. Bad things happen. Ignore it. Move on. We have, unfortunately, taken this strategy in life and smaller day to day things. Life seems to just happen at us and we bear down and try to make the best of it. 

If this is you, what if you take some time to reflect on your year in these last few days of the year. Really reflect. What has worked? What hasn't worked? What do you value but don't put enough time into? What do you waste time on? What do you put time into out of habit, but it doesn't fit your life right now? Don't let life throw you around. Take the time to reflect, consider, and plan. See what happens.

Also, check out Amusing Ourselves to Death. It's really good.