Mood: Kinda depressed, despite my new haircut. :-\
Music: Shakira, Underneath Your Clothes
Mind: Click-click-clickety.

You know, I just had to take a break from watching the news to say something.

I am not crazy for taking Zoloft to fight depression. I think a lot of other people are crazy for not needing something to ease the pain after watching the terrible things on the news.

Ever since I became interested in journalism, I have been a news junkie. I read papers in-hand and on-line. I watch local news, MS-NBC, CNN, FOX News, or whatever I can get my hands on. Stories that interest me prompt me to dig up more information on the Internet.

But ever since I've had a hand in reporting or editing the news, the roles have changed a little bit. Things hit closer to home now. Lives seem more precious and fragile than ever. The news is depressing and morbid. Even the brights aren't bright enough.

Let me give you an example:

This morning, a man was found dead in his home on Mynci street in Frayser, an area of Memphis proper. He was tied up in his bedroom. He had been dead for several days, and his family said they had not heard from him in a week. The police would not say how the man had died, but did say the home had been turned down to a chilly 60 degrees.

I know right away what some of my colleagues would say, because I've heard a lot of heartlessness when it comes to murder, crime and other news. They'd say that people die every day, and that this man was no different from any other John Doe who turns up without a cause of death or any suspects. They'd call it a damn shame, maybe even pity the family of anyone who had to die in such a terrible way.

But there's something else to it. Sometimes it's ephemeral, and I can't really put my finger on it. But I think it's plain and simple compassion for someone like me. Like one of my parents. Like Paul or Matthew or anybody else that I know. Here was a man with a family and a home and a life of his own. And now all that is gone. If that doesn't depress you, you've become very desensitized to human tragedy.

I'll leave you with a second example, also on today's news. Yesterday, the body of an infant was found inside a bookbag in Tom Lee Park on the Mississippi River downtown. Police say they have no leads because so many people were in the park for the Tyson-Lewis fight on Saturday. The baby was found by an older man walking on the banks with his two grandchildren. The medical examiner has been unable to examine the body because of a serious backlog (the problems in the Memphis ME's office are a story of their own). However, the body was so badly decomposed that it is not readily evident the age, sex or cause of death of the child.

I'm telling you ... the news is depressing, and I am doing my best to fight the way it makes me feel. But I think I'm going to feel this way until the day there is an end to the murdered men and decomposed babies.

/me sighs