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As he does so often, my best mate Billy pulled me out of a slump yesterday.
The day started like so many others. I'd woken after a good night's sleep, made myself a coffee, fired up the laptop to catch up with the news. Almost immediately, I felt my mood darken.
More death and destruction in Gaza. An immensely powerful piece by my boss, who'd visited the Israeli Embassy to view footage of Hamas's October 7 atrocities. Homes consumed by bushfires in Queensland. Another woman murdered. A new COVID wave.
The temptation was to go back to bed, pull the covers over my head and wake up some time in the future when things weren't so grim.
But Billy would have none of that.
Get a grip, his eyes said, bright with enthusiasm. Get a grip on my lead so we can get on with our morning walk. It wasn't long before his eager mood banished the shadows from mine.
Well-loved dogs are like that. For them, every day is the best day ever. Their trick? They don't read, watch or listen to the news.
Us humans don't have that luxury. We need to be informed about what's going on in the world. Sometimes, however, too much bad news is, well, bad news. Bad for the people consuming it, who can suffer what's called news anxiety, and bad for the outlets dispensing it, who risk turning away audiences worn out by news overload.
This was evident on yesterday's adventure with Billy, when a fellow dog walker said she'd stopped watching and reading the news. "It's all too horrible," she said. "I've had enough."
Ramsay Mental Health warns of the dangers of addiction to bad news, of going down the doomscrolling rabbit hole, exactly what I and many others have been doing during the current Middle East conflagration. An article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal quotes University of Sussex emeritus professor of psychology Graham Davey, who warns exposure to bad news can amplify personal worries, even lead to to symptoms of PTSD.
As confronting and potentially damaging as the torrent of bad news is, we have a responsibility not to turn away. What we can do is balance it with good news. That's exactly what a younger colleague, whose job is to stay immersed in news eight hours a day, does. After work - and a fortifying gin - she visits a website that only carries good news.
So yesterday I went hunting for good news headlines. Here are three I found:
"Deaf children are first humans to have hearing pathway restored in dramatic demonstration of new gene therapy"
"Farmers were organised to collect eggs of endangered wildfowl, which is saving a species in Australia"
"French company discovers massive reserve of clean hydrogen gas that could start renewable revolution"
In that search for good news, I also stumbled upon The Optimist Daily website, "a reader funded project that focuses on solutions rather than problems".
That led me back to a seminar I attended at the National Press Club in Canberra just before COVID locked down the country. Presented by Denmark's Constructive Institute, whose mission is to encourage journalists to seek out solutions rather than just focus on the world's problems. Stan Grant has been appointed as the inaugural director of the Constructive Institute Asia Pacific, based at Monash University.
At the time, I admit I was sceptical - still anchored to that time-honoured newsroom ethos that "if it bleeds, it leads". But three and a half years later, after witnessing fires, floods, COVID, more fires and two bloody wars - and feeling fatigued by it all - I've warmed to the concept. Like good news items, stories that offer solutions would let some light into the darkness.
In the meantime, I'll rely on Billy to remind me to smell the roses while he smells the trees on the morning walk.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you have ways to remain cheerful when the news is so bad? Have you found yourself avoiding TV news which shows "distressing content"? Do your pets provide comfort and healthy distraction during these distressing times? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- Electric utes and delivery vans, not merely cars, could be the answer to curbing Australia's accelerating carbon emissions. Commercial electric vehicles, or CEVs, represent 9 per cent of the nation's carbon emissions, and this is rising, according to research released on Wednesday by independent think tank Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE). Australia's bus and truck manufacturing industry employs the same number of workers as the coal industry but has "huge potential" as a new source of economic growth and jobs, the think tank said.
- About three in every five GP patients will find it easier to see a bulk-billing doctor thanks to sweeping changes to Medicare. New financial rewards, which kicked in from Wednesday, will triple the incentives for GPs to bulk-bill pensioners, concession card holders and children.
- Canberra Raiders boss Don Furner has blasted both ACT Policing and the Director of Public Prosecutions for not only wasting taxpayers' money, but also embarrassing Jack Wighton, Latrell Mitchell and Canberra. Furner also called on DPP Sam Bargwanna to apologise to both the NRL stars after their case was thrown out of court on Wednesday morning.
THEY SAID IT: "Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results." - Willie Nelson
YOU SAID IT: Shock, horror as men in shorts are allowed into Flemington for Melbourne Cup Day.
Geoff writes: "An excellent history of the development of shorts as an acceptable addition to sartorial elegance. But the choice of footwear presents a problem for these trendsetters as well as the fashion police of the members enclosure: thongs or sandals? The former rules itself out, particularly with socks but the acceptance of sandals with socks should meet with Gai's approval and reflect the egalitarianism ingrained in this day of days."
"Anyone who thinks the Melbourne Cup is a stylish event is a mug," writes Samantha.
Old Donald writes: "In the olden days I bought a lovely leather bomber style jacket while on study leave in London. It cost me a bomb, which I suppose was in keeping with its name. I proudly wore it to Randwick one Saturday (this was 1980) and I was stopped by a greencoat at the members' gate. It was deemed unsuitable! This was confirmed by some higher power and along with a tie (the lack thereof) I was refused entry. A kinder greencoat lent me his own for the afternoon. This was the time when Randwick suddenly acquired the 'Royal' tag, to which it clings like a limpet. Sad and sick? So of course Ms Waterhouse, daughter of the premier trainer (Rolls Royce owner, naturally) and raised a stone's throw from the track, would be somewhat disturbed. Standards, John, standards. Otherwise what might come of the real world?"
"Why shouldn't men wear shorts to the Melbourne Cup," asks Helen. "After all, women have been wearing garments more suitable for the beach, the bedroom or an evening cocktail party to the Cup for decades now." She recalls a visit to Melbourne on Cup Day. "We sat on a wall opposite the station for the best part of an hour quietly giggling at the sometimes elegant but mostly trashy outfits paraded before us. That evening we saw the aftermath as some of the no longer glamorous attendees staggered in for dinner. If you ask me, my old tracksuit and joggers would have been more suited for someone to stand on sun baked grass for hours whilst trying to figure out which brown horse, brown horse, brown horse was the one that was going to confirm them a loser this time."
Christopher writes: "Ms Waterhouse has no right to make any comment on what I wear at home during the the first Tuesday in November. I leave Flemington to the Flemings who hate themselves so much they can't stay sober."
"Thanks for your witty exposé of the horrors of Cup Day. Always bemused by an event trying to be 'classy' when at heart, it's extremely 'unclassy'. The pantomime costumes, raucous behaviour, the hats, the shoes; it all makes the inevitable rate rise a pleasant diversion in a sea of excess. Blame my Calvinist forebears, but I've never seen the fun in throwing good money away. I'd rather hold on tight and buy something practical with the price of joining the game. The only fun to be had was in joining a 'sweep' with co-workers, but those days are long gone. It's taken a lifetime but I'm glad to find a fellow traveller who shares my distaste. I thank you!"