Self Preservation or Turning a Blind Eye?

This weekend I actually made the decision to stop reading a book. It was a good book too. It was well-written and promised to be really interesting. I stopped reading it because I could tell it would ultimately cause me stress. The title of the book is The Book of Joby and as you might imagine, it is about God testing the main character Joby - actually I guess it would be more appropriate to say that God allowed Lucifer to test Joby. Did I mention Joby is a little boy? God and Lucifer make a bet over creation and this little boy is the wager. I knew that in the end everything would turn out OK and that creation would be saved but this was a big book and the thought of even half of it detailing all of the horrible trials and tribulations this little boy would go through was too much for me.

In my quest to reduce the worry (aka stress) in my life, reading this book was simply not conducive to my overall goal. If you have read my blog for long you know of my love for NPR. Well, I am sad to say that I have almost decided that I may have to stop listening. At least, I may have to practice very selective listening. There are so many positive and interesting segments on NPR but lately they have been hidden in between the reports on the "possible" recession, how rising gas and food prices are affecting people around the world, the 1% (or 5% or 10%) drop in the NASDAQ that day, the rising unemployment rate, the genocide in Darfur etc., etc., etc. I feel like it just goes on and on and lately, when I am listening, I have a hard time separating myself from it.

One of the ideas in Tolle's book The New Earth is to be in each moment and respond to that moment accordingly. That means that it does no good to "worry" about anything unless it needs to be addressed in that moment because, as he says, worry does not affect anything but the worrier. A better response is to take action if it is something that we can affect - otherwise we must learn to accept what is. Another idea that I totally get is that we can only control our own thoughts and feelings. We cannot make other people (countries, gas pumps, etc.) do what we want. That is such a freeing idea and I know that in order to put it into practice in my mind, I must stop subjecting myself to the daily media frenzy.

Without the constant reminders of those "other things" I focus on the beauty in life as I see it each day. I have begun to feel like I am betraying my own life when I dwell on things happening so far away. I know that I need that separation, but there is this little part of me that still feels like I am turning a blind eye. I wonder if there is a balance between the two or if there even needs to be?