I listen to news/talk radio more than anything else. My day starts with a healthy dose of NPR, through the day, I flow between, NPR, Howard Stern, and sports talk radio, depending on my mood, and most evenings will find my husband and I watching the "info-tainment" shows until 10 or 11. During the 2008 elections, my son banned me from the local talk radio stations in the car. He said it was causing me too much stress which, in turn, was really bumming him out.
Talk/news radio addiction runs in my family. My father was an NPR listener. My brother and I spent many hours trapped in the car with him and Praire Home Companion. It was like taking the fifth ring of hell on a road trip. We listened to NPR every morning while we got ready for school and we knew to be by the door for the bus when the opening bird chirps and musical notes of Robert J. Lurtsema's classical music program came on. If I heard that tune today, I would have to drive to my parents' house and wait by the front door.
I started appreciating what I was hearing (or rather what was seeping into my subconscious) until I started to know answers in school because of a story I'd heard that morning. I took my NPR habit to college and pretty much anyone who lived with me eventually became an NPR listener and then a fan. Now, with a home of my own and my own child to torture, the cycle continues. My son hates NPR and husband mocks it whenever he can. But they listen and they learn, even when they don't want to.
I've learned a lot from NPR through the years and their coverage of the crisis in Japan has been excellent. They've covered everything from breaking down the nuclear power threat to courageous survival stories and everything in between. Hour after hour, the stories go on. And I sit there, in my safe car, in my safe town and wonder how life can be so friggin' random. I made a contribution to the relief efforts and kept listening, but then, I got tired. And I turned the channel. I couldn't take another minute. I needed a break, so running back to the arms of Howard Stern I went. Sweet relief. Crass jokes and Charlie Sheen clips. Yahoo!
But eventually, I had to return to Japan and I started thinking about what I could do. I am of the thinking that if I can't pack up my stuff, hop and flight to Japan, and start digging out, anything less than that just isn't worth doing. There has to be a happy medium between texting "Japan" to 80888 to make a $10 donation and leaving my family to move to Japan!
So, this afternoon, I'm going to finally drop off the cell phones and eyeglasses that have been riding around the backseat of my car for at least 6 weeks (no exaggeration). Is is flying off the Japan? No. Is it donating items that I know organizations what but I've been "too busy" to make happen? Yup. It's just that in these major crises, I just need to do one small, measurable thing that makes the world a better place.
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