Dear LPG, 

I have heard it said that what counts as news these days has changed so much over the years, and I agree. 

Although the terrible aspects of it were always there, the depressing elements of what we hear come at us so often that many of us, are hardly even shaken by it anymore. 

The person shot or stabbed in a local park happens so often that we hear it and, perhaps, realise the devastation for a short while. Still, whenever you look at tomorrow’s instalment of the news, there is something to supersede what you heard yesterday. Then there are the stories of the wars and financial predicaments of the different countries and peoples of the world before we get to what is happening in the world of sport and show business.     

Certain aspects of the news leave me wondering what I have done with my life sometimes, but perhaps that is not quite as much of a fleeting feeling for some. When you hear news of the rich and famous and how much their latest home or yacht is worth, it can sometimes remind you of just how much you don’t have and, for some, that feeling of regret can play on the mind in a very overwhelmingly negative way.

I want to remind everyone that they have personal news worth remembering daily, and more of it than you think is positive. Much of the smaller more local news that crops up in the papers is so easily overlooked, and many of us treat much of  our personal news in the same way. Sadly, our minds usually remember the horrible things that happen to us personally more readily than our small wins.

My reason for putting all this on paper is to remind those readers that get to the end of each news bulletin (where more positive stories of the more famous members of our society are documented) and find themselves wondering why they have never aspired to be part of that world, to remember that we are all worth celebrating in one circle or another, whatever the size of our personal world’s metaphorical circumference, and every achievement is worth noting; large or small.

AK, Bellingham 

AK shares a list of small, personal wins that the average observer of the news might miss…

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