This little tiny essay has been bugging me ALL WEEK, the waves/under-the-waves metaphor chasing me around. I think this is draft seventeen? (Exaggeration! But barely.) I can't shake the idea that one of the best life applications of the ocean metaphor is...

how we interact with the news.

Not, perhaps, the most obvious direction for it to take! Weird, and it'll get weirder! Let's get into it, piece by piece.

The surf = the news, i.e. the never-ceasing reports of global events and global/national/local politics. Starting around 2016, I got the notion that being a good citizen = being all in on all the news, all the time, being smacked in the face over and over by information both traumatic (e.g., horrifying immigration policies) and petty (e.g., gossip about White House staffers). This lasted until around 2021, when I realized I hadn’t breathed in five years, and I more or less turned off my brain for a year and crawled back to the sand to sit on my towel, stare blankly at the sky, and eat Cheetos and cherries. I don’t think I’m alone in this.

The sand, Cheetos, and cherries = avoidance of the news. They are delicious and restful and sometimes totally, completely necessary for temporary periods of recharging. During our recent family vacation, I paid not a whit of attention to the news! It was great!

The “getting under”? I’ll get there in a moment.

First, let me put my bossy cards on the table (which is hard, because I don't want you to think I'm bossy, even though I know you know I am):

I don’t think that avoiding the news is a good long-term habit, not for people who want to live a Table life.

I know a lot of people who [claim to] “stay out of politics” and “ignore the news.” I get it: politics can seem like sports for nerds. The news is, as aforementioned, like buckets of cold water to the face.

But “politics” is just another word for “how we live together"; the decisions made in political arenas determine the safety and well-being of our global tablemates (as well as our own, though we often miss this until something we care about is politically threatened; hence the “claim to” above).

And “the news” just reports what’s happening to our tablemates, all over the globe. If “listening to people who’ve historically been marginalized” is one of my important Table practices, “having some context for what they’re saying, knowing what's happening to them” seems prerequisite.

So. I think, as Table people, it’s incumbent on us to be in the surf—that is, be basically aware of what’s going on in the news.

Back to the metaphor, here’s the linchpin: “getting under the water” = taking a moment to contemplatively assimilate the news as a thoughtful, feeling human. I think, as Table people, we should get under, listen to the “ancient rumbling” beneath the loud intensity above for hints about what The Deep might be calling our depths to, in response.

Holy smokes is this woo-woo, and I'm still not sure I'm describing it well? It's in process.

But I’ve been trying it out, in concert with my new contemplation habit.

Here’s how it looked this morning:

I listened, as I do most weekdays, to NPR’s Up First podcast, which briefly explains three major headlines for the day. Afterward, for a couple of moments during my meditation time, I tried to sink under each headline.

First: Israel’s government just limited the power of its Supreme Court, and thousands of people are continuing months of protest in the streets, despite an often harsh police response.

OK. Sink. What’s down here?

Second: A new study—again—definitively links this summer’s dangerous heat waves to human-made climate change.

OK. Sink. What’s down here?

Third: On Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday, the federal government is designating a national monument in honor of him and his mother.

OK. Sink. What’s down here?

What I found—"down there"—weren’t words but deep gut impressions. I think I expected to find fear or anxiety, but instead I found a mixture of admiration, solemnity, connection, and resolve. Love, even?

The upshot: I’m going to keep trying this. I think, as a Table person, I should have a regular, sustainable habit of news intake + diving-under contemplation. Be in the surf; get under; take some time on the sand; repeat. I should not avoid the news long-term. Neither should I subject myself mindlessly to a constant spray of news until I black out. I should have a thoughtful practice that keeps me in touch with what’s happening to my neighbors and how I, we, can best respond to it.

“Should”s make me a little leery, but there we have it.

So, action suggestion for this week:

If you’ve recently tended toward avoidance of the news cycle: this week, try engaging. Listen two or three times to the BBC World Service podcast (5 minutes) or NPR’s Up First (around 13 minutes), or scan a newspaper’s headlines. Afterward, try sinking beneath the noise of the headlines into their depths. What do you find there?

If you’ve recently tended toward obsession with the news cycle: this week, a few times, try turning off the news after you’ve heard/read the headlines—and sink. Get under the noise, into your belly, and feel around for the ancient rumbling. What do you find there?

THIS IS IMPORTANT: If you’re currently in a state of nonconsensual sinking—grief, depression—now is not the time to try this practice. Now is maybe the time to try floating on your back, squinting up at the sun. The ocean is holding you—mysterious and untamed and never still, but holding you nonetheless. The rest of us are in the surf; you don’t need to be. Get to the cherries when you can.

* * * * *

Y’all. I’m going to hit publish on this one before it can harass me ANY MORE.

What do you think? And do you have news-intake habits you’re happy with, and/or should we develop some?