Getting My Friday Night Fix

Much of my television watching involves watching the news.  I don’t care for the cable news networks that have 24 hour coverage and not much substantive journalism, but I do usually watch a nightly news program.  I especially like the PBS News Hour because of their in depth coverage and lack of sensationalism.

Every Friday night on the News Hour they have a special segment that I religiously watch called Shields and Brooks, that’s Washington Post columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.  I have been watching this segment on the News Hour since before they were Shields and Brooks.  They were Gergen and Shields when I began watching it.

In this segment the columnists engage in a succinct and substantive analysis of the week’s major news stories.  Mark Shields is a more liberal columnist and David Brooks a more conservative columnist.  I especially enjoy this segment because I want to hear both sides of the issues.

I read an article online once called 'Can We Agree to Disagree in a Nice Way'.   For a lesson in how to disagree in a nice way, this segment on the News Hour is a perfect example of how to do just that.

Mark Shields and David Brooks often take opposite sides of an issue, but they are never disagreeable.  They state their opinions in polite, civil ways, and show remarkably  good will and respect toward each other.  They also have an in depth knowledge of the subjects they are discussing.

Their discussions are very different from many political discussions one might hear on cable news shows, and it’s an example many of us might try to emulate.  

Honeysuckles Grow Wild

I live on five acres of mostly wooded land.  When I got ready to build a house here, I had to have a driveway cut up the hill to the building site.  When the bulldozer came to build the driveway, I followed the driver around as he was bulldozing.  I wanted to be sure he didn't cut down any more trees than necessary.  He told me he understood because he had two acres and had 182 trees on those acres.  I decided that someone who had counted his trees was safe as a bulldozer driver for my property. 

As a result of this tree-saving activity, our driveway curves up the hill in and around several trees.  It makes driving up to the home site a little more interesting.

One day in early spring not long after construction had started, John and I drove up to the property after returning from a trip.  As we crossed over the little stream at the bottom and started up the hill with the windows of our car opened, we were greeted by smells of the honeysuckles growing wild in the woods beside the driveway.

Honeysuckle vines can be annoying, but when I'm working on landscaping around here, I always remember that day driving up the hill as we returned from a trip and the welcoming aroma of the honeysuckles greeting us.   

Sometimes it's just hard to improve on God's work.