Was I the only one, prior to this weekend, who thought pirates only existed in in the 1800s or in movies starring Johnny Depp? I know this is one of those “dumb girl” moments when everyone can say, “where have you been - the pirates have been all over the news for months.”

Well, okay….I think I caught a blurb here or there about pirates this, or pirates that, during the last few months, but I’m so used to distrusting the over-dramatized news stories with invented, yet catchy names and phrases assigned to the subjects in the story, (can anyone say OctoMOM, Sexting, ) that I’ve come to suspect them all as part fiction, and gotten good at tuning them all out.

I guess in the last couple years, I went from being a broadcasting major-news junkie who prided herself on being “up” on all current events, to a cave dwelling, tv-shunning, media-disrespecting, happier person because of it - kind of woman.

It’s true, I’m one of these people who prefers to live with blinders on rather than taking in a constant stream of video game-like scenes, strange and sick happenings, and negative projections that make up our modern day news. 

In a world where fantasy and fiction seem to blur together with increasing frequency, in which far too much negative nonsense overloads my senses 24/7, I have gotten good at living with my rose colored glasses on….until……..my Media Addicted Mom (MAM), gets a hold of my ear that is.

And then the lenses get fogged up, and  everything I’ve succeeded in avoiding for two weeks gets data dumped into my psyche all at once like a software download I can’t exit out of until it’s complete.

That’s what happened over Easter, but for the first time since Sully saved the plane full of people, MAM’s news had me (and the entire family) running for the tv to view for myself, the heroic rescue of the cargo ship captain by U.S. Naval Special Ops forces. 

Does anything make you prouder to be an American (OR make you want a Navy Seal for a boyfriend) more than watching a few of them open a can of whoop ass on some Somali pirates? Not that anyone would expect the outcome to be different when the United States Navy goes up against crudely outfitted men from a destitute country, but still, it was a proud moment.

And it highlighted yet again for me, that the daily impact on our mental, physical, and spiritual health of hearing negative news, can not be underestimated. Likewise, the positive jolt to our immune systems, and the rise in “feel good” chemicals from hearing good news, is equally as powerful.

Leave it to the Navy Seals to confirm for me that exiting my news-free cave is truly only worth it when there exists the promise of a very sunny, blue sky outside, occupied by the pleasant hum of a sky-writing airplane delivering only good messages. I’m sure Jack Sparrow would agree, “American military is second to none”, was a great reason for me to emerge.