Briefly

You and I aren’t required to have opinions about anything outside of our own lives. We’re not even required to know about the idiotic controversies which take up so much time and energy in modern media. We can ignore them if we choose. We don’t need to be able to converse about what Celebrity X said or what “social media” is saying about Politician Y. The more we fill our minds with this extraneous garbage, the less attention and energy we have for the things which do matter to us. It’s hard to be active on social media or to consume much other media and still maintain this stance, but what that suggests is that maybe media consumption is making it more difficult for us to live meaningful lives — and maybe it’s time for us to make more changes in our habits. Taking back control over our lives demands that we know what’s important to us — and it demands that we say no to agendas driven by gossip and advertising.

More and more Americans are moving from their native cities to other countries, some for retirement and others because they see danger ahead for the U.S. Mary Taft is a retired teacher and school administrator from Massachusetts who wanted a comfortable and safe place to retire, because she said she saw “the social fabric is shattering” in the country where she grew up. She now thinks it’s a mistake for anybody to stay. “It is an act of insanity to continue to stay in the U.S.,” she told MarketWatch, in an article which looks at the factors that led her to choose Panama as her inexpensive retirement destination.

Scott Mautz spent most of his working life in the corporate world. He made more and more money and his lifestyle got more and more expensive. By the time he realized he wanted more out of life, his ego was too invested in the idea of climbing financial and social ladders for him to walk away. He wanted to pursue speaking, writing, teaching and coaching, but he feared he would have to take a pay cut. His wife was completely willing to cut their lifestyle for him to pursue another direction, but he had trouble allowing himself to take the chance. Writing for Inc. magazine, Mautz tells about his decision to take the chance — and how that change has given him the joy he wanted from work and unexpectedly allowed him to make more money than ever.