Good News

It's always good to find a kindred spirit. This morning, I found one in Daniel Stone.
Stone wrote a web piece for Newsweek magazine about the growing hunger for positive news.
(I used to do a lot of freelance work for Newsweek. Everyone should go out and buy a subscription at once.)
Stone described how the past few months of wallowing in bad news has been messing with his mind. Well that certainly sounds familiar enough. When he noticed his signature started to droop like the path of the stock market, he decided to go looking for "good news."
In the process, he found at least two sites worth checking into: Ode Magazine and the Good News Network.
I should say right here that the "good news" idea is nothing new. For years, there have been publications, both web-based and dead tree (or "virtual" and "real", take your pick) purporting to bring only uplifting news. And for years, I've been suspicious of them. Usually it turns out that your good news publication is merely a front for some other kind of organization. They're touting a political point of view (Good news! The liberals lost the election!) Or perhaps for a religion I don't fee like joining.
That, or else they're so desperately trying to spin universally acknowledged bad news that they sound insane.
But now. Now a bit of a warm and fluffy about people being kind to other people would just hit the spot. Yeah, I'm thinking a little kum ba yah would go down good about now.
Because I'm finding it hard--even when it looks like something good is in the air--to believe anything happy.
The other day, for instance, the DOW market shot up almost 500 points. Was I happy? Just for a few seconds I was. Then I heard myself saying this: "You know what will happen, don't you? The market will go up, the traders will get theirs and everyone will forget about the rest of us. Groceries will still be high and utilities will still be high and that will be okay because credit is open and we can get busy again going right back into debt."
There's something kind of sick about a person who can't even be happy about a 500-point rally in the market, wouldn't you say?
Ode calls itself a community for the intelligently optimistic. And both charge subscriptions. Money's a little tight right now but, I don't know, it just might be worth it.