The Necessity of Human Spirit

The impact of the dark mornings are starting to become a regular part of my day once again. Waking to my alarm at 6am each morning I often wonder where did the bright mornings go and why all of a sudden am I faced with the prospect of waking up to be greeted by a dark sky even though my day has already begun. The only hint that it is morning is the sound of my radio, a comforting constant that tells me it is time to start another day.Yet despite my radio being a comforting constant in the mornings, that is not and should not be the only function of the media. Media is there to inform, educate and provide a level of comfort but above all it is there to make consumers uncomfortable; to bring stories to light and ask the public if they would like to change the reality they are living in right now. It is never an easy question to answer; idealism fights with realism, unwilling to marry into a compromise. So where do we go from here? When we have to ask probing questions of ourselves and when our world demands answers. This issue of the paper provides uncomfortable but necessary reading across many different sections. News, features, music and many other sections this week provide striking observations that will leave lasting impressions and possibly leave lingering questions unanswered.The need for some quiet time to find a bit of headspace and find that human spirit to face these truths in our world is a must. For me this week, it took the form of a walk and ended with me bringing home a few bags of hand-picked blackberries, my fingers stained purple from the juice. I walked home to nurse my sore hands which had been pricked and stung during my efforts. Despite the nettle stings I arrived home with a smile pasted across my face, proud of what I had accomplished over the space of a few hours. But lets call a spade a spade, this story was never about picking blackberries; like a game of chess it was about deciding my next move after reading pieces that shook me to my core. However, this chess game has a time element - or zeitnot - to it. There will be winners and losers but while the game is still in play we need to concentrate on the problems at hand. Media fulfills a job by bringing stories to light, to speak to our logical side and appeal to our human nature. Each of us as individuals are the only ones who can decide what course of action we take after receiving the information.I’ll leave you with the lingering thought that has been in my head for the past week. I like to picture life as a sweetshop; there are many different sweets but there is no way that you will be able to take them all, so it becomes a choice situation. Which sweet will you pick?Until next time,Fiona