Did you ever notice how the older we get, the worse the news seems?  Whether it’s national or global (witness the 494.23 point this past Thursday/Friday  Dow Jones drop) or personal (realizing I put the wrong year on an art contest poster that already went out via email and internet), all kinds of things seem to be going wrong.

Dean Koontz’s character, Odd Thomas, said it better than I ever could, Usually I spare myself from the news, because if it’s not propaganda, then it’s one threat or another exaggerated to the point of absurdity, or it’s the tragedy of storm-quake-tsunami, of bigotry and oppression misnamed justice, of hatred passed off as righteousness and honor called dishonorable, all jammed in around advertisements in which a gecko sells insurance, a bear sells toilet tissue, a dog sells cars, a gorilla sells investment advisors, a tiger sells cereal, and an elephant sells a drug…