You read the news headlines often enough – you will see the quotations begin. Mostly in the comments section, but sometimes in the news stories themselves.

We need to worry about illegal immigration!

We need to worry about this candidate or that candidate because of their stance on this!

We should be very concerned over this piece of legislation that threatens this part of our environment.

..and so on and so forth. Now I am not disparaging or playing down whatever the cause may be or the reasoning for the concern. In fact, I’m setting that aside. Rather, I want to focus on the singular focus of these messages – that we need to constantly and continually worry.

In the military, soldiers are rotated out of the front lines from time to time to give them a break. Continual combat with no real degree of rest can wear a soldier down both physically and mentally. Enough that you can literally break an individual’s will to survive by continually placing them in a high stress environment like combat. We do the same thing in our daily work lives. From time to time, we take beaks from the work environment – usually called “vacations” – so that we can let go of the work stressors and experience a slower paced period of life. I sometimes wonder if we have ever thought the same about the manner in which we approach the various causes we support or the mix of politics that we ingest?

When I took my vacation to southern Colorado and visited Mesa Verde, I was constantly posting updates to Facebook. But I purposefully avoided the news web sites. In fact, I took my iPad with a portable keyboard as my version of a laptop computer. I did this, because the iPad is something I usually read on. And I don’t normally read the “news” there. I read books, and the various Pagan zines that I have purchased. In short my iPad serves as a way that I connect to the people I care about – the folks I have friended on Facebook – without being something that I will use to check online to see what the news is. In fact, if you keep going down in screen size — the less I use the device to read web sites with. I love my iPhone, but its primary purpose is to serve as a limited chat messenger, a handy on-the-spot camera, and an emergency method of communication. I love my electronic devices and the connectivity that they provide to me – but I really do crave face-to-face communications. But that’s a potential topic for another time…

When I see all these folks demanding that we need to worry about this or focus on that or drive all our energies into these… Literally, I find myself getting turned off to their messages. Even the ones I completely agree with. Even the ones I actively work for. Because worrying is such a negative and draining method of using my energy. The causes that I work for – I put effort, time, money, focus, and energy into these, but I rarely utilize a negative methodology to get there. Yeah, go ahead and accuse me of being a “white lighter” – you would be wrong – but go right ahead. I’m too tired and far too focused on keeping things moving in a positive manner to worry about what labels or stigma get attached to me. I worry about following through on issues that I promised to Crow, and what I am finding myself caught up in while working the Green Man. Worry is the last thing I need on my plate, much less worry borrowed from somewhere else.

But even from the work I maintain for the Gods that speak with me and ask for my assistance – after all, the Gods need more than just themselves to make their works happen – I find that I need to take a break from time to time. Essentially to recharge my batteries. Even the Gods know this, and back off when we need it. If we manage to figure all that out – and find time to recharge…should we not be a little more cognizant of the request we are making of others when we throw around requests for “worrying” or “focus”? We talk about how words can have specific meaning – can be charged in certain ways to be helpful or hurtful…perhaps, it might be a good idea to peek at the rhetoric that we slap up on our Facebook walls trying to cajole others to a particular perspective or political cause??

Yeah…me…a white-lighter….sure.  Whatever floats your boat, mate.