Covid Information is Boring!

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. He may be a scientist.

I have to get my head around this.  Serious information about a problem that is killing large numbers of people is BORING?  Did a prominent news commentary really say this?  Implying that a good citizen need only pay attention to entertaining information.

Unless the news is exciting and involves personal attacks, unless it is entertaining, don’t listen. And if you do listen, well then, you’re not one of the cool kids. You probably listen to that other network.

We live for many things. Our children. Our future. And yes, we hope to laugh and tell stories and sit by the fire with good friends and a good scotch.

I never wanted to be Menken’s “puritan,” someone with "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."  Moreover, we can be too serious and too rigid. Yogi Berra said to his manager Casey Stengel, “you can’t hit and think at the same time.”

But to live only for entertainment?

I have wined and dined and bought tickets to see great theater or music or baseball. I even admit that the question, “would you prefer to be Socrates unhappy, or a pig happy” is worth asking.

Yes, yes, make time for enchantment.

But if you follow such advice too far, you will find yourself in a desert land of cheap thrills and repetitive “entertainment.” I remember once watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon festival. Try something like that for half an hour, and you’ll know real boredom. Watch television commentary for more than half an hour and ….