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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

One more point I forgot to make...
I have been trying to train myself to watch global, act local.
In other words, I watch the news and read the news on the web, but I
don't believe half of what I read anymore.  There is so much spin on
everything!  Now, I try to look at my community to determine the truth
of the way things are.
For example, according to the map from the NYT, my county has 10.7%
unemployment.  I don't know when they polled for those stats, but just
looking at the people on my 7 mile road, the rate is closer to 20%,
higher than that really, because a lot of companies cut hours back
before they laid off, so if some one was full time last year, they might
have gone to 30 hours a week in order to try to save their jobs, and
then of course, that doesn't qualify for unemployment, so when the
company goes, the employee is jobless but can't collect.  It is happening.
By the same token, I hear people talk about frugality on the news, how
times are really hard and that people are seriously cutting back.
Due to the drama I mentioned earlier, tonight DH and I went out to
dinner for the second time in six months. We went to El Nopal and spent
$17 for dinner...woohooo!  The thing is, El Nopal was full of people,
and it was 7:30 on a Monday night!!  Other restaurants in town were also
fairly busy.  I have to wonder why people are eating out if they are so
strapped?  My conclusion is that there is more to this than meets the
eye.  Many people in my country don't have a mortgage, so a job loss
isn't quite as devastating as it could be.  People around here drive
beat up trucks and such,,,no BMW's or fancy cars.  People still garden
and can food on a regular basis.  There are almost no fancy
neighborhoods in the whole county...lot of mobile homes, older homes and
old farmhouses though.  The county is still considered rural(even on
that NYT map) and people help each other, like I am going to give away
some of my veggies, and my friends and I carpool to town for errands.
If I need feed, I call around and see who else needs something from town.
I'm not ignoring what is going on elsewhere, I watch it closely, moreso
than most people in fact, but I try to 'ground' myself in my local
reality.

By the way, if anyone needs a good laugh or a distraction from all the
bad news, I posted a picture of myself on my blog(and Facebook) today.
It was taken this morning on our trek and it is the first picture of
myself I've uploaded in over 10 years.  It is not a glam shot, but it is
the way I look on any given day..hoodie and jeans<g>

Bev


> Gene GeRue wrote:
>
> > I've been thinking about the results of reading bad news day after 
> > week after month. What do we gain by that other than perhaps 
> > perverse pleasure in finding ourselves better off than many people?
> >  Does knowing any of the bad news improve our lives? Or might it 
> > depress us?

--
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public
debt  should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered
and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed
lest Rome become bankrupt.  People must again learn to work, instead of
living on public assistance."

--Cicero, 55 BC
http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/