Friday, August 13, 2010

Positve, Positive, Positive (a soapbox)

(Before I start....guess what?  I found a spell checker on blogger!  Husband and Ashleigh will be tres happy!)

In the movie Knocked Up, Leslie Mann's character, Debbie, tells her sister Alison, played by Katherine Hiegl about pregnancy tests:

Alison: These can't all be positive.
Debbie: We're going to be positive.  Positive, positive, positive.

That's been driving me nuts for a while as ever since Lent, when I vowed to be more positive, I've been saying...."Positive.....positive, positive, positive"
(So I just had to say I finally found the movie it's from - was driving me nuts).

AND.....I am NOT pregnant.

But, moving on.... about being positive.  I'm not good at it.  I don't think many of us are, unless you're Anne Shirley or Pollyanna Whittier (great classic books by the way).

I have decided to turn off Sirius Radio Fox News, CNN Headline news etc.  I refuse to listen anymore.
I think that's part of the reason I'm anxiety ridden and negative all the time.  My addiction of listening to these crazy people, is over.

I mean, I really love Glenn Beck.  I do.  I do think, like most republicans and definitely ALL democrats, he's off his rocker (he is a conspiracy theorist), but I still tend to agree on a lot of his points.
But this is not a political post...
Glenn Beck is on right smack at 5 pm, on my way home from work, getting me all riled up and mad at the world.  I quit coming into the house talking Glenn Beck because Husband just tells me to be quiet (because I get loud about it....and he's a republican!)


So, I turned the radio to Martha Stewart (love her!)  Green trees, green eating, crafting...ah wonderful pink and green crafty goodness with yummy cookie recipes.  (Cue: morning music).

There used to be a show on TV years ago, a human interest show.  It was put on by ABC, of those large conglomerates and it's a show Husband and I wish they'd bring back.

A news reporter would look at a map of the U.S.A., close his eyes and point.  Wherever his finger landed, he'd go to that town.  Once there, he'd find a phone book, open it to the residents, close his eyes and point.
The name he landed on, he would go pay them a visit, interview them about their lives, and put them on TV.

It was a fabulous, positive, human interest story.  The show was on only a few times, but every since, Husband and I have talked about how much we would like to see that show again.

A good, positive show about regular people, their lives.  Their hardships and triumphs.
Not saying that there aren't negative times in their lives, but they're negatives that a lot of us could relate to.
It was about regular people who think their lives are so little and insignificant....but fascinate the rest of us.  We're not talking Donald Trump here.  We're talking a simple farmer in the mid-west.  That was an interesting story.

I'm tired of the politics, the fighting, the crime, the death, the sickness, the plane crashes.  Not that these aren't important issues and that they aren't worthy of my attention and those people aren't in need of our prayers and thoughts.  I just need some goodness too.
(I hope I'm getting my point across).

I'm tired of shows like Teenage Mom, Wife Swap and Real Housewives where people do nothing but fight and do unnecessarily weird things (which I don't watch these shows...used to watch RH, not anymore).

If I could see more good, positive human interest stories....

about people's normal lives,
about the ups and downs of everyday people,
about those who help others
(I love the segment they do on NBC Nightly News - you know, more stuff like that).

I think it'd be a lot easier for me to be positive in my own life and spread that positivity to others.

So, until that happens (like it will ever happen),
I quit listening to the news.  I quit reading about it.
I'll stick to the Antique Roadshow and American Pickers....and GLEE! (that show makes me happy).

And if I need to go vote in an election, I'll go straight the candidates sites, read the *facts* (noticed how I used asterisks), and decide for myself.

I'm on a quest to rid myself of negative anxiety.  And my soapbox.  Back to regularly scheduled programming of pink, green and Lallie goodness next week!

Positive, Positive, Positive!

Happy Friday Y'all!


  1. Bravo! Down with the haters and the drama!

  2. Love the spellcheck! Love the Anne Shirley and Pollyanna references! Gosh I have good taste :-). And I love you. I am off to the beach. But don't worry, I will still be "following" you!

    Rock on! GW

  3. Great post, girl! Yes out with the negative and in the all things peachy keen...positive!

    However, I will still be watching my RH, I'm so addicted! They are ridiculous and frivolous, but it gives me an hour to lose myself in the something that to me seems more fiction than reality.

    Happy weekend!

  4. I applaud you!! Your point is well taken. I agree 100% we all need more positive(and pink & green) and less negativity and drama! :)

  5. I love the spellcheck too.

    I quit reading or watching the news about a year ago. I go online and if a story sounds interesting or worth my time I read it. And the main ones I go to are the positive sounding one.

  6. I could not agree with you more! While my political views match so many of those on talk radio shows you mention, they can be a real downer. And better. You are right...bring on the positive!!!

  7. Great post! I am so over the drama as well. I actually stopped reading the comments in on line news stories, way to much negativity and incivility. Focus on positivity and all will be right in the your world.

  8. So agree! My well-informed, reliably calm and wise, retired parents recently told me they had to switch to Deal or No Deal (a show I cannot tolerate!)because Glenn Beck was making them so anxious. These are not silly people! We are in the process of buying a house but everyday I'm thinking what if the American economy collapses and we just invested bigtime into Florida real estate. We know how volatile that is! I too basically believe GB but life has to go on, I have three kids. Should we just wait their childhoods out in the bomb shelter? RHOC was the original and I watched it because it WAS real people with real lives but as soon as any reality show seems to manufacture drama I start to feel manipulated. I think Bravo TV has a big programming problem ahead. I know I have stopped watching. I want more happy, less crass.

  9. I do NOT watch the news. I keep up with current events only if something catches my eye on someone's blog or on Twitter. We get the newspaper 2x a week, but that's mostly for me to know what is on sale at the grocery store & to feed my addiction of reading the classifieds. LOL

    I agree about today's reality TV, too. Real Housewives? Puh-leeze. How about focusing on the REAL housewives - the ladies who budget, who stay home to watch their children (or who work to provide for their children), who don't drive fancy cars or live in ginormous homes.

    A lot of what is on the TV today is such a skewed example of what "reality" is.

  10. I totally agree! I don't have cable for that simple fact- I don't want to spend my hard earned money on mindless shows! My boyfriend and I were just saying how we wish I could just pay for the channels I'd want- TLC, Discovery, Health, channels that we can actually learn from!