Ignorance… it’s not so bad.
I’d be obfuscating – okay, lying – if I said I weren’t watching the stock market AGAIN today, even though my “money” (like the quotes? that’s a new addition) remains for the most part in the same old mutual funds, melting a little more each day even as I repeat the mantra, “this is no time to sell. this is…”
But for a couple of days I KNEW NOTHING.
Yes, yes, it’s important to stay aware of what’s happening around us right now, including the quaking economy and the this-is-getting-really-personal presidential election. But I escaped it for the weekend by neither looking at a newspaper or TV news nor using a computer (indeed it’s possible – just travel to the middle of a large lake in a good sailboat and forget that Palin is hinting that Obama is a terrorist, and that one’s theoretical retirement is looking like a shrinking speck on a distant horizon).
Guess what? IT FELT GOOD not to know. And this is being said by a news-junkie-don’t-call-me-a-nerd-bookworm-I’m-a-little-worried-oldest-child.
I’m planning yet another ignorance interval. I promise that it won’t be a work day.
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October 7th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I agree with you 100%! After being inundated with politics for the last few weeks, to the point where every dinner conversation felt like a segment of CNN, I decided to make this past weekend a “politics-free” weekend. Boy am I glad I did! Sometimes, in order to save your sanity you need to disconnect – at least from SOMEthing.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am
I had a news-free weekend too! I think we’re all entitled to check out once in awhile. And I appear to be paying attention again with a vengeance… which might explain my mild depression. Sigh.
In a discussion with my father last night, he said that he checked his numbers and has lost in the neighborhood of $100K. He’s having similar doubts about his retirement prospects.
Oh hey, there’s that depression again.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I DO like the quotes around money. The past few weeks have made me wonder if I should put quotes around my “real estate” since more of my most-vulnerable assets are in a rental property as well as my own condo. But then I remembered that these are actual buildings, with actual people living in them. Since I have a tenant leaving and will be showing the available apartment, I had a local landscaping company do some much-needed work in the yard. While they were there, they did lots of small extras, making me feel really good about the house, and good about a company that will go the extra mile to help a customer in difficult time.