Blogging for fun and profit

So, here's how cool the internet, and a blog, can be:

The editor of the Sacramento News and Review saw my posting about the depressing headlines of late, and my vague addiction to them, even though I know they're doing me NO good - even, perhaps, as a journalist. Or whatever I am now.

And she wants to buy it, and run it. Which is great.

But as I started to go to bed tonight, I thought, the thing about journalism is, it only gets a small part of the story. That is, The Story. It's the whole man-bites-dog thing: News is only news when there is a difference. News is about whatever doesn't work, because if it DOES work, well, what's to say? The sun came up today, the fall colors were brilliant against the blue autumn sky, the soy lattes at Naked Lounge are the best (they use Ambiance soy milk), bikes are amazing ways to get around, people are fascinating, music is comforting, radio is magic, the crows gather every day at sunset, book stores are distractingly amusing, and cooking a meal for someone you love fills your house with all sorts of good things. And Jon Stewart makes me laugh out loud and cold sheets are wonderful to slip in between.

So what else is new? Uh, news?

The stock market is CRAZY right now. I mean, it's dropped by virtually 50 percent in a year. Can it go down 75 percent? Can everything lose ALL value? What is going to HAPPEN???

Will I, you, your partner, your kids, even BE in six months?

Why do we - I - get so wound up about these terrible, scary days? Especially when - and this is what made me get up out of bed to write - when our lives are so GOOD? I mean, I'm living on the edge more than I have in years, and I feel it, but moment to moment, life is so rich and happy. I ache in places I never did before, my bank account is shrunken, and watching the news it's like the Four Talk Shows of the Apocalypse.

But life is good.

So, what do you focus on? The bad news or the good that suffuses every breath, every moment. When you stop and breathe and take it all in, the sheer freakin' magic of being alive...what's more important?

Some say you get what you focus on, and it's true. But the bad is just so riveting. It's the car wreck theory: Who can drive past an accident and not look? Now, via the media, we have access to accidents (or when it's Britney Spears or Larry Craig, "train wrecks") 24/7.

Does that mean we have to keep looking?

And if we don't, how do I make a living?