What Happened When I (Mostly) Stopped Reading the News

A few weeks ago, I was a bit obsessed with the presidential election coverage. I followed every state's primary closely, even though I was unable to vote in my own state's caucus. (I was ineligible to vote in either major party's caucus because I am a registered Independent. In addition, the Colorado Republicans, for reasons that are difficult to understand, decided not to hold a vote on the presidential nominee this year.)

Then I drastically reduced my consumption of news and politics articles when Lent began (Ash Wednesday was March 16 for us Western Rite Orthodox), and in the past week or so I have read hardly any news at all. I have no idea what controversial statement Trump has made most recently. I have no idea whether Bernie Sanders is catching up with Hillary Clinton in the delegate count. Is Kasich still in the race? I really don't know.

I am ignorant of other news topics as well. I did read a little about the Brussels attacks, but I haven't read into the details.

What happened when I (mostly) stopped reading the news? At first, I was extremely curious about what was happening in the election and the world, and I found it very difficult not to go to Google news and find out how certain stories that I had been following were developing. Then, as I became more and more out of touch, I actually started to lose interest. Since I no longer knew which states' primaries were happening when, I didn't feel tempted to watch the results come in.

I have begun to feel a lot less emotionally involved in the election and other world events. Instead of musing all day about the mysteries of Donald Trump's candidacy, I am much more focused on my daily tasks. I have even put more thought into my spiritual life (though still not as much as I should during this holy season).

I have a Thursday through Sunday print subscription to the Denver Post (I have a Luddite streak, despite my addiction to Google news). This morning, after I picked up the Thursday edition from my doormat, I skimmed the headlines for about two minutes before recycling the whole thing. It didn't feel like an act of self-denial; I just didn't actually care about reading past any of the headlines. I got bored with the news after two minutes and wanted to move on with my day.

Now that I have taken a step back from following politics, it is becoming clearer to me just how much spiritual destruction I had been doing to myself by unrestrainedly indulging my political passion. Sometimes, I think, it is difficult to see how destructive a vice is until you have started to recover from it.

It's like when you're in a smelly room for a such a long time that your nose becomes desensitized to the smell. It's not until you've been out of the room for a while, breathing the fresh air, that your nose becomes re-sensitized. Then, when you re-enter the room, you realize how much it stinks, and you can't believe you didn't notice before.

Not reading the news has been a breath of fresh air. Now, when I come across yet another article someone has posted on Facebook explaining how Trump's candidacy is a harbinger of the apocalypse, I think to myself, "Whew-- did this always REEK so much?"