All the News Not Worth a Watch

I have not watched news (or any news commentary) since the end of August when I traveled to visit family for a few weeks.  On this day of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, finishing a novel featuring a woman who knew well how to carry her Cross to Calvary, I realized that, overall, I am calmer, more prone to reflective silence, and motivated to read those classics I have put off because “I do not have the time.”  Now, I would love to say that my “fasting” from news is entirely virtuous, but that is only partly true.  Sound from the TV in my space does carry though the vent into my granddaughter’s room, but truth be told, I simply do not want to hassle with the technology of a different remote.

 
This is not in any way a condemnation of news, per se, but like many foods, no one is going to pass away without it.  Moreover, I still get glimpses of what is happening in the area and world through my phone, but I leave that behind more frequently, as well.  Whether the latter action is part of a domino effect of focusing on anything other than the news, who knows.  A big plus has been reading classics, or at least those works that best evince the power of strong virtuous characters pitted against various villains. This now daily exercise has made me realize that the “more things change, the more they stay the same” with respect to evil influences and influencers.  Certainly our age is fraught with fresh challenges, but the inner core of each of us is timelessly subject to how we perceive ourselves in relationship to God and others and strive to be holy.

 
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in 1853, tells the woeful life of a young impoverished and ignorant teen girl who falls prey to an older man’s attentions.  After being predictably “sent away” by the suitors’s mother, Ruth must find her way in a world that rejects her.  Matters worsen significantly when she is found pregnant, and the plot moves somewhat as expected from there, though she encounters a brother and sister who will harbor both her dilemma and shameful secret.  Furthermore, the reader will be pleasantly surprised by some twists and turns that still fail to shake the deepening faith Ruth embraces with respect to a life of contrition but also great love for her son, benefactors, and enemies alike. 

 
Besides a hopeful tale, what makes the character Ruth Hilton so engaging for the 21s century is not the extreme, almost universal condemnation of her fornication and bearing a child out of wedlock, but that she is a model fiction’s saint for our time.  Though the backdrop is Protestant and Ruth (identified as a Dissenter from the state of the Church of England, though still most stringent), clearly the morals of the mid nineteenth century indicate far greater fidelity to Truth than what we observe today.  For though one may criticize Ruth’s judges as severe and a few hypocritical, they say “yes” when they mean “yes” and “no” when they mean “no.”  And no one is harder on Ruth than herself though she never sinks to self pity.  As the story progresses, we see Ruth ever more humble, obedient and charitable even towards those who would see her ostracized entirely.  Her growing integrity even to the point of patient self sacrifice reminds  readers that joy is found in rightful self denial. I will not give away some key portions of the book, but I found myself envying a fictional character.  What a model for all women today, and, bluntly, males.

 
When I sharply contrast gentle, but ever wiser Ruth against the raging rebellious, disordered Karen’s of our time what emerges is the horrific reality that Ruth’s universal story is not only incredibly relevant for our day,  it is the only “endless story” worth imitating.  The character of Ruth mirrors every genuinely Christian era sinner since the dawn of humankind as well as the necessity of redemption regardless of time and place.  Conversely, in our so called enlightened age are million of women who have regressed to primitive barbarism and paganism.  

 
As the evening again approaches, and I think of some of the typical programs I usually watch with my husband, at home, I am even less tempted to click on a remote or news item.  World news today is barely worth hearing, reading, or watching.  I will absorb the Good News reading at my disposal, now and more in the future.