TAKING PAUSE

It’s hard to write about anything this morning after watching the coverage of what has been going on in Japan. The devastation is so profound and heartbreaking it is almost too surreal to digest. And of course, because the media machine always must march forward, the absurdity of what is being reported in the news is glaring: one headline about another nuclear reactor under threat of exploding, towns having been washed away, the death toll and exposure to radiation mounting by the second; and of course, who got kicked off Dancing on Ice and how Kate Middleton is changing the face of fashion. I swear to you, one paper had them pretty much within inches of each other on the front page. The juxtaposition is enough to make one's head explode.

So I suppose I’m wondering at what point should there be a moratorium on pointless, stupid reporting, especially in light of events that are changing our world as we know it? Not to be totally macabre and depressing, because I do believe there should be a definitive balance in what is reported, but today it just feels very out of place. I don’t care who is shacking up with whom, or who lost weight or who cheated the government out of a thousand quid in benefits. At the moment, I am just trying to figure out how entire towns disappear and how to make sense of it.