I was having lunch with my friend Greg, who I don’t get to see very often.  Our drive to the restaurant had been pleasant, the food was good and the day was sunny, but Greg was distressed.   It seems he has a bunch of e-buddies who regularly share information with him about what is threatening the peace and safety of the nation.  He is also careful to watch the national news each evening. He’d received a lot of negative news the day before, found himself sharing it with his wife – who had very different ideas about it, and they wound up in an argument. So Greg was doubly distressed.

I asked him if he thought it was important to tune into all this negative news, since it obviously was making him unhappy and affecting his relationship negatively. He said yes, because it is very important to be informed.              Later I started thinking about that comment.  Clearly, he believes that his “news” sources (I put the word in quotation marks because so much “news” is actually opinion) do a good job of keeping him well informed.  But I disagree.  The most important news may not be reported by any news source.  Here’s an example:            Say you’re a job seeker living in Maine and you have an interest in using your skills and talents in the manufacturing sector.  The “news” that there are 65 companies in the state that make products for the aerospace industry is more useful by far than a report that the unemployment rate is currently over 8%.