Even with tech toys streamlining the process, it’s still a media blitz of sorts. Information overload is a real threat in our lives. I’ve read about folks committing to media blackout and feeling great after unplugging the television, cancelling the newspaper and periodicals, etc. These individuals tend to experience better communication and bonding with their companions and greater overall serenity and happiness. No question the news can be depressing. Our world is not always pleasant, especially with the media constantly reminding us of human failures whenever it can. If newspapers could only report good news, we’d save a lot of trees.

In my travels, one indulging pleasure is the leisurely read of a newspaper over a breakfast served and cleared by someone else. Simple decadence awaits for the taking in the unhurried act of reading the paper without deadlines to attend, appointments to make, or demands of morning’s usual rituals for facing the working world. Whenever possible, I try to read local papers for a taste of where I’m visiting. I can learn world events anytime, but the reported shenanigans on a local level are priceless. One of our frequent destinations a few years back was the sleepy west Texas town of Fort Davis. With a local population of 900, but an annual tourist influx in the tens of thousands, their local paper The Mountain Dispatch was always a treat. Part of the enjoyment of any small town is the slower pace of life, and the local rags usually reflect this improved approach to what’s important. Sometimes it takes the small things in life to show us what’s big on the important scale, and lessons sometimes appear where you least expect. Simple pleasures should be slowly absorbed, and the casual reading of events outside my periphery while leisurely basking in sunbeams with fresh coffee odor tauntingly floating seems like the good life…at least it does to me.