Changing the story because I can

It was the kind of story that wouldn't usually affect me because I am busy counting calories or inputting symptoms into WebMD or clicking out of stories that tend to depress me. But instead I decided to risk being depressed and to drink in the details of a story of a pastor who was left for dead in a ditch. Maybe he got unwittingly involved in a drug deal gone deadly or maybe he really was living a second life or maybe we'll never know. But the whole sad stuffed with sadness with a side of sad made me... I couldn't get into life for the rest of the day.

Who wants to keep doing this life thing on this planet where the animals in the jungle have more regard for one another? Oh, hey there, lion, king of the jungle. Were you trying to get by? Oh, wow, look at you letting me through to my prairie dog tunnel. Thanks for being such a bro!

Is the internet just addling my brain or is every other headline about total rotten awful malicious garbage rotting on top of perfectly good soil?

I had to change the story. I needed to believe in the other stories that were using the soil for good. I asked the book of Faces: who is someone who invested in you, that made a really big difference.

The responses were just so good and life-giving. Coaches and 5th grade math teachers and counselors and hubbies and grandmothers. They saw soil--maybe it was good or total garbage but they planted seeds anyway.

People are worth investing in, people are worth investing in, people are worth investing in because people are worth investing in.