Fear – it clouds our thoughts everyday.

Even if we can manage to tackle the harrowing depths of our personal lives, we can’t turn on our T.V. screens without hearing news about war or talk of gun control in the wake of horrendous mass shootings.

We cannot drink our morning coffee without subconsciously knowing that bombs continue to be dropped at unprecedented levels.

The weather is changing rapidly and we cannot tell exactly what is going on right now in the world beyond what the media wants to attempt to clue us in on.

Today, I read something about how consuming large portions of beer and coffee could circumstantially result in living past 90, which may contradict everything that I have heard before about the tribulations of liver disease, high blood pressure and shrunken breasts, but still that is better news.

Sometimes I watch my cat, stricken with arthritis, drag her body across the floor and wonder if she could possibly be happy in such an unforgiving world.

I know that life must be simpler without all of the outside influence, though. Yet, she can still find solidarity in gazing out the window at the surrounding forest, and she will never have to know about all of the suffering that plagues the world around her.

The world does not want us to be able to find that kind of concurrence. Even if we are theoretically free, we can never escape from bad news.

Olivia Swenson-Hultz is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or omswensonhultz@eiu.edu