I Get It Now

We are living in a media prison experiment

Photo by Vlad Rudkov on Unsplash. Cropped by author.

The noise doesn’t stop.

At least not since we took Papa into our home for good and bought the big screen he says he needs. His oxygen machine gasps twenty-five times per minute, and he turns up the TV to hear the news. It’s deafening for the rest of us, but he refuses to use the earbuds. They are too isolating, he says.

We are prisoners, incarcerated by the raucous media around us.

Before powering up that big screen, I had avoided news-like content for the last six months. No Fox commentators or CNN hosts. Certainly no MSNBC or The Daily Wire. Quiet was better for my work and happiness.

An emotional cleanse.

Calming.

My mind had become more peaceful despite the deluges of family life: a mother passing away, an awkward estate that won’t get settled, a first child off to college, a partner working 80 hours a week, a second child slogging their way through the middle teen years, and the sudden decline of a father-in-law and friend.