My Own Personal News Hour

Canary Wharf stock ticker (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Life could use a ticker tape. You know that scrolling thing across the bottom of the screen during the news that has stock numbers, brief headlines and weather for major cities? Yes, that thing. I need something like that for my daily life.

Why? Doesn’t Facebook already sort of serve that purpose, you ask? No, thank goodness, I reply.

No, I’m talking about a quick update about what’s going on in my body and brain and heart that might explain the why’s behind what I’m doing.

Like a little news blip that pops up about a traffic accident on the interstate, you’d know before you left the house to take a different route in to the office. If something like that let me know that there’s a psychic fender bender that’s not even in the clearing stages yet, I could reroute myself around the mess and avoid some tears or heartache.

Delays at airports over two thousand miles away make sense when explained by a little news note about heavy storms in a city with a major airline hub. In like manner, if a little news scroll reminded me of what I ate just before bedtime, mixed with the not so wise choice of dinner condiments, I’d be better informed about the reason behind the morning headache or the sluggishness I’m feeling.

As interconnected as the world works there’s no need to register surprise when something in Eastern Europe affects the stock market in the U.S.

Brains and bodies work together in even more intimate ways than the world operates. A little heads up that the worries I’ve stuffed into the dark closet in the back of my head are contributing to some sleeplessness might change how I deal with both issues.

Maybe more than the news ticker, I also need a couple of analysts in the background, my own personal Gergen and Shields, debating the merits, causes and results of various choices and events. They’d be way better than a shoulder angel and a shoulder devil because they’re unbiased. Well, maybe not completely unbiased, but they wouldn’t get emotionally involved. Imagine how intelligent, efficient and effective I could become with such well-informed people weighing in on my life.

I suppose that’s not really practical or affordable for an ordinary person like myself who’s isn’t trying to run a country or a large corporation or anything like that.

And the ticker tape thingy would get annoying pretty quickly, to the point that I’d ignore it, or resent that it’s covering up part of the screen.

I probably just need to pay attention to my life a bit better. Maybe it’d help if I were more mindful of what I eat, how early (or late) I get to bed, whether I’m thinking things through or just rushing in without much thought.

“Life moves fast,” as Ferris Bueller says.

I guess I need to “stop and look around once in a while” so I don’t miss what’s really going on.

But wait. Does that mean I need to speed up? Or do I need to slow down? I guess that’s the problem with taking advice from a fictional teenage character. Not really the most solid place to get life coaching from.

Where are Gergen and Shields when I need them?