Way back in my younger days, when I was working for a midsized metro newspaper, the powers that be hit upon their annual brilliant idea: Let’s pick one day and put out a paper with nothing but good news in it. We’ll call it the Good News Tribune.
Of course, it was widely panned by everyone in the newsroom tasked with putting out the newspaper, fresh with memories of previous brilliant ideas gone sour, but we did it anyway, because that’s the way business works. Fortunately, it was not a day when wildfires devastated a major American city, or it was discovered that the county treasurer had absconded with $39 million, or the star quarterback suffered a season-ending injury.
I can’t recall exactly how we filled those pages, but we survived with no damage other than a smudge on our journalistic integrity. Many of the readers reacted favorably, and I get it. News can be heavy, negative, depressing.
Dealing with the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life is hard enough. On top of that we’re subject to a constant battering of catastrophes, scandals and fearmongering. Perpetual grumpiness is one option. (Not recommended.) Tuning out entirely is another. But ignorance isn’t bliss. The news media has a civic responsibility to report on the important events of the day, like them or not.
But here’s where the ‘but’ comes in. There are a lot of important things that are not news. And it’s important not to let the good things be overshadowed by the heavy ones. We can celebrate the blessings and still be informed, responsible citizens at the same time.
The other day, while fretting over a gloomy personal matter, I made my first visit to the Patagonia Public Library. What a find! And how lucky a town the size of Patagonia is to have such a splendid resource. Along with its own radio station. And a newspaper. A fascinating museum. A fabulously welcoming greenspace smack dab in the center of town. High school sports (with passionate fans). A beautifully restored pizza parlor. Places to meet and mingle and worship and nibble on a delightful pecan bar.
And that’s just scratching the surface. We’re blessed to inhabit a community with 360 degrees of natural beauty. A community with a genuinely neighborly message board, whether if you need help moving a pig (?!) or locating a mobile mechanic, someone will provide a kind response in a matter of hours. A place with spectacularly bright and quiet mornings, spectacularly dark and quiet evenings, helpful hardware men (and women), and a tasting room that serves up not only amazing pizza that is way beyond what anyone would expect in a town this size, but mussels too!
It ain’t all good—looking at you, tumbleweeds—but it ain’t bad.