When will I stop checking the news? When will I abandon all hope for the human species? When will I focus inward, as I have kept promising myself for so many years? I wonder. Right now, focusing inward is still a dream, and a very distant one at that. I can do it on occasion, all right. And I can do it often enough to nourish the dream all the time. But I succumb to the silly news much more often than I would wish. I relish them, the fucking news. What is worse, I respond to them, and in writing. Having read something or other, I sit down to come up with the best response I am capable of at the time. The commentator, as my beloved loves to put it. Commenting in vain for ever and ever. For no better reason but to entertain the monkeys in my brain, that is. The best I can come up with at present is that my journey inward will be reflected in my writings. The news will gradually vanish. Commenting upon them will mercifully come to a stop. And my writings will reflect the shift in the simplest possible way. Even I will notice it in the fullness of time. Alleluia!

Addendum (January 16, 2016)

When will I stop checking the news? Well, I managed to do it about a month ago. This is when I stopped commenting on the news, as well. And my writings indeed reflect the shift is the simplest possible way. It has taken quite an effort on my part, and not for the first time, but the addiction is behind me by now. And for good. As for the addiction, it is worse than smoking or drinking. In my own experience, it is the worst addiction of them all. Chances are that it is also worse than drug addiction, but I have no personal experience in this realm. One way or another, I am free of it at last. Step by tiny step, I am ever closer to liberation from all thought.