From Ron Dunphy
Creston
Indeed we all had the opportunity recently to feed our bodies. All of us over the holiday, Thanksgiving, also had the chance to feed our minds.
How all of us might have expanded our sense of “We” would say much about “us.” Our sense as Americans, or to a lesser degree, how we feel about ourselves as Crestonians, is in decline.
Not a consumer of sports, I did over the holiday watch an event recorded and presented on YouTube. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska discussed his book “Them, Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal” at a National Press Club function from Oct. 31. Sasse spoke to the general obsession with national politics.
Sasse spoke to each individual’s “rootedness” and mindfulness as lived by all of us. He described in some detail our chance for individual happiness and how “place” determines to a large extent how happiness can be achieved. In this place where we live, do we have what our grandparents might have had as happy people ... family? Do we have meaningful friendships with our neighbor and people where we work? Do we have meaningful work? And, do we own a theological understanding of why we exist?
Sasse would suggest, in our “place,” we need a local news outlet; less reliance on national cable outlets that have contributed to anti-tribalism. There is no such thing as 24 hours of news, but some news is discussed and re-visited for days. Moore’s law (and Rock’s Law) has advanced technology so rapidly that hundreds of cable news outlets exist to offer competing interpretations of facts presented. News gets mixed with opinion. Sasse went so far as to quit Twitter for a period of time, feeling no need for their endorsement. He, like myself, did not have time for it. Facebook falls into the same category, is my sense.
Search for yourself or use the following: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtLhivl3JoA
Good luck finding your own happiness and place.