“You maintain hope for humanity as an infinite skeptic of gossip and slander. In all mankind’s desires for entertainment and exaggeration and sensationalism, when it comes to gossip, the individual always sounds worse than he really is. This is why adhering to gossip subtly affects the mental state of the listener—he goes on holding shady opinions regardless of where the realities of their lights and darknesses may stand.”
—Criss Jami
I don’t watch the news on television anymore. Why? Because televised news features the exceptions, not the rule. The other night, somewhat by accident, we had the local Maine news on for about ten minutes, and here’s what I learned:
- A dog in Upstate New York had been stuck in a tire for days before being found and rescued;
- A stranded kite surfer in Southern California was safely extracted from a remote cliff; and
- A rogue bull at a rodeo in Oregon had jumped the fence and injured four people.
Here’s the problem with those featured stories:
- There are 89 million dogs in America; only 1 was found stuck in a tire.
- Worldwide, there are 1.5 million kite surfers; only 1 was stranded on a remote beach.
- Approximately 40 million Americans watch live rodeo events annually; only 4 of them encountered a fence-jumping bull.
Television news does not report on normal human experiences; rather, it highlights the abnormal. The “news” that makes headlines is seen through a distorted lens that warps our vision more than it clarifies. It clouds more than it illuminates.
For example, most US senators and representatives are cordial and respectful to each other (despite their varying political views), but friendly interactions are not deemed newsworthy. Similarly, while most high school students have brilliantly normal days at school, participating in class, having lunch with friends, going to practice, this is something we rarely see.
What makes the lead story is rarely what makes humanity amazing. Humanity’s beauty, brilliance, love, and resourcefulness is driven by the countless ordinary moments of our daily lives. This truth reminds me of one of my favorite business quotes:
The real heroes of business rarely make headlines. The real heroes are not CEOs. The real heroes are all those people who get up and go to work every day, doing the best they can, and succeeding more often than not. Choose to celebrate the ordinary each day. Only then will you have a real story to tell!
