Cherish The Possibilities

What is it about people like Charlie Sheen who fascinate us so much?  You can’t tell him this, but his life is a train wreck, and yet, he is everywhere…on the television, on the radio and even on twitter.  And, yes, even in this blog.  But, my focus is not so much on Mr. Sheen, but on the people who can’t get enough of him and his terribly sad antics.  Are people attracted to this type of news story because it takes the focus off them?

I’m as guilty of getting as caught up in the “lookey-loo” mentality as the next person, but I’ve recently decided that instead of focusing so much on all things external, including the latest salacious news story, I am going to focus more internally on my day-to-day world, on the unsung people I know who make my life better every day.  There’s the girl at Starbucks who always says hello to me, knows me by name and knows exactly how I take my coffee, and yet somehow in all the conversations that we have had, I still don’t know her name.  How sad is that?  And, then, there’s the man who has an office in the same complex, down the hall from mine.  We “talk” all the time, but why isn’t it that I don’t know the names of his children and yet I can tell you that Tom Cruise’s daughter’s name is Suri.

Oh, I know, there will people who will say it’s the “Media’s” fault because they saturate the airwaves, the television screen and the computer with all of these factoids about people whom we will never meet and who really don’t deserve it, but really….it’s my fault.  I control what I watch and what I listen to and what I read.  

So, I’m turning off Charlie Sheen and all the rest of the stories like him, and I’m going to Starbucks and find out my barista’s name.  I invite you to consider doing the same!