Frankly, It's Getting Tiresome and Tiring

This is all getting tiresome and tiring - the avalanche of "news" that greets us each day. Of course, we've talked about this subject many many times. We've suggested using a sharpened sense of discretion in choosing what to listen to or read. We've further suggested being selective, sometimes outright skeptical in allowing what we read to be considered factual or true.

You can see how the above is critical if we're to take serious our desire to made sense of things. And the latest round of "We're close to a deal" with Iran can serve as reinforcement of this. 

But still, it's getting tiresome as the media continues to bombard every available avenue to get to our eyes, ears, and brains. Even with our prophylactic measures, it's still hard to completely insulate or isolate ourselves from the avalanche. And we use the term avalanche carefully here.

If we said "gush" or even "waterfall," you can imagine how if something is gushing out of hose, you can turn it off. Or if gushing out of street from a broken water main, we can walk around it, or at least get out of our car or house if we're in the line of gushing. Not pleasant, but doable.

An avalanche is different. If you're on the wrong side of the mountain when the snow gives, you've got little time to skedaddle. And if you've ever seen an avalanche in action, it's not like you can just walk away and not pay attention to it. Either the noise or the churned up snow is going to grab your senses and rattle you.

But unlike a real avalanche, the avalanche of which we speak is constant. It's not a rare phenomenon. It may not be life-threatening but it is, well, tiresome and as a result tiring.

And it's not just the financial media reporting on markets and the economy. That's a given. 

A recent example was the latest Home Depot earnings report. The message conveyed immediately was the consumer remains strong. One might imply that all is hunky-dory. Only a couple of days later, in a less assertive story, HD and Loewe's both agreed that items that relate to serious home improvement are seriously lagging. The first report provides that typical shot of adrenaline that Wall Street and the current administration crave. The second comes across with a decidedly negative tone.

Another recent example to wake us up.

We might add to this the bloviation of one of our esteemed (?) captains of industry, Jeff Bezos. Taking nothing away from the remarkable ventures he has initiated and grown over the years. is it really necessary that we pay attention when such rich business mavens opine on how to get rich in business? 

OK, I realize many of us do look to these for advice. Indeed, the entire business publication industry is built on our curiosity and belief that these guys have something to tell us that will make us more successful in our own business or career. Hey, if you find this sort of stuff inspiring or perhaps even effective in spurring you on to greater and greater material success, we can only assume you're getting something of use out of this sort of stuff.

But can you really read this and conclude that it's telling us something profound, or even something worth considering? Here Bezos is reacting to the "genius" congresswoman AOC ranting about the financially successful, with intent to grab what they have (in their own minds) earned through their entrepreneurial genius. He's showing us how he because rich and implying that many of us can do the same:  

“Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say you start a burger joint, and you have 10 employees, and you make a little bit of money… Until you have - this is just one outlet. And by the way, these are the most delicious burgers in the world. People love your burgers, Andrew. And so then you open a second outlet… and now you’re making a little bit more money, and you have 20 employees. And you open a third outlet. By the time you’ve opened a thousand outlets, you are a billionaire… This is a real life story. It happens all the time. It’s In-N-Out Burger, it’s Raising Cane’s Chicken… The way you make a billion dollars, or a hundred million dollars, or 10 million dollars, or anything, is you create a service that people love. And if millions of people choose your service, you’re going to end up with a billion dollars… But your chicken has to be good.”

(Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bezos-torches-aoc-says-billionaires-earn-every-penny)

If this sort of banter and blather gives meaning to your work life, if material success is the thing that gets you up and running out of bed each day, then all this is for you.

But if life means more than financial markets, the state of the economy, being "successful" in business - and all that jazz, then perhaps the following might provide some respite from the tiresome and tiring avalanche that greets us each day.

WARNING: This is a Catholic prayer, firmly rooted in centuries-old tradition that brings wisdom into a world bereft of even the basics of common sense. We post it on this Friday after Pentecost Sunday.

Duly noted, OK? 

With that, these "gifts" can lift us up and keep us safe as the avalanche cascades down the mountainside.  

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost

O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Understanding, to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.