Fear and 24 hour cable news
Fortunately the slow-down in the economy is not effecting our occupancy at Whitestone Country Inn.We use the tag line “sanctuary for the soul” to describe what we hope our guests will experience when they come. Guests often comment on the stress, concerns andpressures they are escaping when they come to the inn.
Some of the stress of daily life can be described as fear. Some of that fear is generated by the 24 hour cable news channels “train wreck of the day”. We know more about what is dangerously wrong with the world than we have ever known.We also know more about potential problems and possible disasters than ever before. Examples of news cycle threats to our well-being: bird flu; H1N1 swine flu. I didn’t even know the word “pandemic”until recently. How about Y2K when all computers would quit and the world would would come to a screeching halt.
Then there is the news that is rooted in some reality. Iran is probably working on nuclear bombs in order to wipe out Israel. Israel won’t tolerate that . Radical groups around the world are plotting the destruction of everybody but themselves. Economies from the US to Greece are in a mess. There are lots of earthquakes, lots of famines, lots of anger. (and on and on)
My point is that what trouble looms on the horizon,real or imagined,has penetrated our lives more than ever before. One of Prarrie Home Companion’s mythical sponsors is WORST CASE SCENARIOS INC. Garrison Keelor promises that for $50 they can advise you about potential disasters that you could not possibily think up on your own without profesional help.It almost feels like WORST CASE SCENARIOS INC. has become our reality and permeates our thought (with the help of cable news)
Obviously worry is extremely effective because 97% of all the things I worry about never happen. But we all need a sanctuary for the soul.We need a place to think clearly, feel deeply, love intensly and listen to the calmer inner voice that reassures us “He’s got the whole world in His hands”. Whitestone is a place of peace:; not to hide from reality but to discover a deeper reality that whispers “this to will pass”.We’re just down the road but a world apart. Y’all come!
