Article April 28, 2003 Issue

'. . . think on these things'

By Channing Walker

Like free divers coming up after staying down too long in deep water, many folks apparently are surfacing these days after nearly drowning in war coverage. And they're finding how good it feels to breathe again. There's more to life than just CNN, than Al Jazeera and Geraldo Rivera. There's more than tragedy that's sometimes rehashed in ongoing detail.

The upside of having an informed public is plain. The downside, though, is when viewers become preoccupied with a portrait of humanity as nothing but depraved, selfish, vulnerable to disease. That pretty much means a totally materialistic view of life. That's when viewers can come to feel as if they're trapped in an unventilated room, not knowing the way out, and sometimes not even knowing that escape would be beneficial.

But a fresh wind is blowing. That's a help for anyone feeling trapped. People everywhere, it seems, are re-learning the rewards of a life that takes time for things such as neighborliness, charitable work, volunteering at the local school, or visiting with shut-ins. People are relearning the richness of thinking and living from a more unselfish perspective.