Often the novels I read influence my thinking and I quote them to you. Here is one I finished recently.

Her eyes scanned the horizon. “It’s so peaceful; makes you feel close to God. It makes it hard to believe anything bad can happen in a world so beautiful or that humans could harm other humans.”

Scraps of Paper novel by K M Griffith

I can hardly stand national news anymore. Even local news reports all the violence and harm people do to one another. No matter how I pray murders will continue. Guns are everywhere except our home. Violence that I could not tolerate on television 30 years ago is now in almost every major city and certainly on every television channel.

It is not going to stop. I am not afraid. I am sad over the state of American affairs.

“Evil does have a face. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s human. You talk about the innocence of nature, yet it’s the absence of man which makes nature so beautifully pure. That’s why I love being out here among the trees, water and sky, just like you.”

Her pain had become a silent shadow, constantly there.

She wanted to fall in love again. She wanted to be alive again. Because life was short, precious, and a person had to live it every moment. Every moment they had.

Scraps of Paper by K M Griffith

I saw a friend over the weekend. He does not own a television. I find that a challenging thought. I wonder if we could just not turn ours on for a full week? No news. No violent TV shows. None of that? I would like to try that. We mostly watch TV in the evening. There would be more time for sewing. If I am too tired to sew, there would be more time for prayer and reading. Or perhaps just go to bed earlier?

Griffith wrote that “life was short, precious and had to be lived every moment.” I wonder how much we are NOT living those moments by numbing them with television? The constant recital of violence and mass shootings and on and on.

Many people blame the violence on the political arena where disrespect and ugly words have been allowed to flourish in recent years. Then there are social media forums where those same ugly words seem to appear. No one says thank you or job well done, just blah, blah blah of criticism and discontent. There is not a place where it seems people can have a discussion without tempers flaring and words of insult and belittlement flying.

I now rarely go on Facebook. I am seriously considering fasting from television, too. Do you think you could do it?