Tom Waits. . .

I just came across a hilarious quote by Tom Waits.

I agree, and I'm trying to improve myself as a writer, because you've got to look at the man in the mirror first.

But I'd say this is also true in a broader sense. Bad information is ruining our suffering and is, in part, the cause of our suffering.

We are every day inundated with horror. A coworker read aloud a news story today about a man who decapitated his father and used him as a TV table. I mean, we were shocked but not shocked enough. It's like, that kind of story is so bad, our heads should explode upon hearing it, or we should projectile vomit. But none of that. We changed the subject within a minute.

And there's so much more swill out there besides real-life violence. There are people telling us that youth and beauty is all that is important, and that we can buy those things. There are people telling us that we should hate people who have different opinions. You know, like liberals at conservative throats. Come one, liberals and conservatives together isn't an oxymoron. It's a family reunion. Get over it!

And then I read these little snippets of information that literally suck the smart out of me. Kendall Jenner has a new look. How about a new thought? Kim K. is posing nude, well, more nude than usual.

And then big things are happening all over, like schoolgirls being kidnapped and sold and the Cold War seeming to heat up again in Russia and its environs.

Oh yeah, and the polar bears are melting, or is the polar ice caps?

I know, this is a rant. It's a negative rant. And it's not helping me or the reader.

But the truth is, I just want to find out the good stuff out there. I want to find out that I'm wrong about lots of things--that I have more control over my life and the world than I think and that things matter less and more than I think. I want.. . .

an epiphany.

But while I'm looking for said epiphany, I want to get some information that makes me happy. And dammit, it makes me happy that a goat and an orphaned baby rhino can be best friends, and that said rhino can try to emulate the playful leap of the goat. Apparently I'm not the only one because this business is going viral!

That kind of information proves to me that, while things may be messed up, and it may not always be the wonderful world Louis Armstrong sang about...At least some times it's a pretty cute world.

--Sarah Torribio