Stop reading this article.
No, I’m serious. Right now, stop reading this article. We’re going to try an exercise.
If you’re reading this on your computer, scroll up to the top of the page. Under “West Plains Daily Quill,” you’ll see several categories. I want you to click through them and read the stories. Look for three “good things.” You get to define what “good things” are, I’ll let you be the judge. Just find them, and hold them in your mind for a few moments. Think about what makes them good. Consider jotting your thoughts down.
If you’re on your phone, I want you to go to the top right corner of the screen to the “hamburger menu” — the three horizontal lines stacked on top of each other. There, you’ll see the categories. Go ahead and click through them. Find three “good things,” and think about why you consider them to be good. You can write your thoughts down, too, if you like.
If you’re holding the printed paper in your hands, I want you to flip through both sections, cover to cover, to find your three “good things.” Again, you get to decide what makes them “good,” and maybe you’ll also want to write down how you came to that decision.
Chances are, while finding those three good things — and I hope it wasn’t too terribly difficult to do — you probably came across some other things that were not so good. You can read those, too, if you want, but for the purpose of our exercise, I want you to focus on just the good things.
Why am I having you do this? Great question. I’ll tell you.
One thing I learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown of spring 2020 is that “bad” news becomes very overwhelming very quickly. When we are inundated with stories of a perceived negative nature, be they about crime, or health crises, or economic woes, or anything else our society may struggle with, it can be increasingly challenging to find moments worth celebrating.
To combat this during the pandemic, I curated pages of businesses showing support to one another, kids adding splashes of color to the sidewalks in front of their homes, and stories meant to highlight connection. I made it a point to include at least one uplifting story on the front page every day.
Some days, that was not easy.
While I don’t go to such lengths now that we’re past the pandemic, one thing is still held over from that time: My commitment to try to include at least one uplifting story on the front page of every paper.
It’s intentional. I don’t want to sugarcoat things and present a picture that isn’t accurate, and so if there’s a lot of “bad” news, we’re obviously going to report it. But no matter how much unpleasant there is to report, it would be inaccurate for me to paint a picture of a community that is not connected, does not share joy and does not find beauty where it exists. Because that is not West Plains, and it is not the Ozarks.
Beginning that practice nearly five years ago, of working to include at least one positive story from our community on the front page, did something for me. It changed the way I see our community, and it changed the way I see my work.
It used to be challenging, some days, to find the “good thing.”
Now, it’s the opposite. Some days, I have too many “good things” and I can’t make enough room. Such has been the case lately, for me, but by golly, I’m going to try to get them all in, because they all deserve to be celebrated and recognized.
That’s why I wanted you to do this exercise with me. When all of the information we’re receiving is overwhelming and we feeling like we’re struggling to keep our heads above it all, it helps, in my experience, to slow down.
Stop. Take a few calming breaths.
Go back and look again. Find something good, and hold it in your mind. Think about why it is, in your opinion, good. Hold that in your heart.
Making this a practice disrupts the negative feedback pattern, and pushes back that overwhelming sense of doom and dismay. In my experience.
While we’re talking about good things, if you see something good and worth celebrating missing from our pages, please tell me! Drop me a line any time.
