I am doing my best to skip the news, but I am not very successful at it. Several times a day, I go to the online editions of a number of leading newspapers, and occasionally I search the World Wide Web for the news on particular topics. The Nepal earthquake is the last such topic, for example. Although I write about the news ever less often, which involves quite an effort on my part, I cannot skip them altogether to this day. But I am longing for the day when I will manage not to check the news even once from morning till evening. And then another, and another. After a while, I will have no idea what is going on. At best, I will learn about the latest events from off-hand remarks made by people I happen to meet on my daily round. Day after day, I will be watching the birds and flowers. As well as clouds. To my joy, my writings will reflect the shift quite admirably. There is a long way to go to reach this ideal, though. And skipping the news is the first step in the right direction. Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow? Fingers crossed. Fervently, too.