Bad News is Good News, No News is Boring

Maybe it's the journalist in me. Maybe I'm just morbid and disturbed. Either one could be the case.

I love bad news. Disasters, war, struggle, famine, conflict, and so on.

Okay, "love" is probably the wrong term for it. I get excited over bad news.

When something bad happens, the bigger it is, the more excited I get. I'm not talking about "Hey, we're going to Disneyland!" excited, I mean more along the lines of "Holy frijoles, this is actually happening" excited. If it's big, then chances are I'm glued to the TV or radio or Internet, trying to find out as much as I can. Even if it's halfway across the world.


A good example is 9/11- if I wasn't watching it on a TV somewhere, I was listening to coverage on the radio. But so was everyone else. I really get into consuming news and information about bad events, from floods to bombings to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

It fascinates me, engages me, occupies me.

So that may be why I feel a twinge of disappointment when the "bad stuff" happens elsewhere.

Again, to avoid misunderstanding, I am so grateful and relieved to find out that the ones I care about are safe, and pray with gratitude for shelter and safety and protection.

But I can't help but be a little disenchanted when the big stuff misses me.

Like today. Big thunderstorm, hail, thunder, lightning, even tornadoes. But it was is southern Boone County. We had it kinda bad, they had it worse.

It seems like the "worst of it" is always somewhere else, not right where I live. The closest I ever got was a tornado 1 mile from our home in the 80's, and some mild hail damage (car dents, broken house windows) in 2006.

The recent ice storms- yeah, Missouri suffered. Oklahoma suffered worse.

During a storm, there's always a part of me that says, "Man, why couldn't that be a bit further north," or "the little towns always have all the fun." That, of course, is something I would never express, and my concern over the damage that does occur far outweighs any wishes to see that here.

But like I said, there's always that little part of me that wants to be right in the middle, in the thick of it. I am my mother's son- I want to see a tornado with my own eyes.

Then again, my tune will probably change drastically should said disasters ever destroy my home or car or hurt the ones I love. I have been very fortunate in that my friends and loved ones have, to a great degree, avoided the nightmares that come when bad news hits.

Until then, though, why couldn't lightning have struck a tree in our neighborhood?

P.S.- About my entry title, in the news business, bad news is good news in that it sells, it gives us purpose, it makes effective news. So that's good. No news gives us nothing to do...that's bad.