The routine around my parents’ house is that after supper (which is usually around 6 pm), Mom would relax in front of the TV and watch the news and whatever is on GMA Channel 7.  (Mom has a strange loyalty to this channel and ALL its shows, strange to me but quite natural for her.)  The TV room is adjacent to the kitchen and dining room so we would often have the TV on while we are having lunch and dinner, loud, so we can hear.  The news invariable comes in the evenings and with the recent MV Princess of the Stars disaster and other Typhoon Frank’s devastation, we would often troop to the TV room to see the latest.

And then, there is that GMA channel show- Kap’s Amazing Stories, where file footage of miraculous rescoues, averted disasters, heroic tales are shown with Filipino narration.  Sometimes, a story would have me stop and stare.  There was a fire in an apartment where a woman and his son were trapped in their third floor balcony.  The flames were slowly making their way to the mother and son while the firemen below were frantically getting the fire truck into the driveway.  To get away from the flames, the boy dropped off the edge of the balcony, managing to land on some netting and the mother did the same.  And then, there was the story of a direman that got trapped in some mud that was slowly freezing. 

So, there Mary and I were, staring at the TV, watching these stories unfold.

Then, Mary asks,  “Why do so many bad things happen here?”

I say, “Here in the Philippines?  No, those things did not happen here- they were somewhere in the States.”

Then it hit me that Mary had been exposed to a lot more news here than back, at home, in Colorado. I did not watch the news, neither did Jack (he would check out news stories online).  We get free delivery of the newspaper that neither one of us read.  I would occasionally tune in about the weather, to check on how many inches of snow to expect during the morning commute and if the downfall is significant, the weather would be the headline and I would soon tune out right after.   So, Mary never got to hear about shootings or suspects at large or the latest rash of neighborhood break-ins or missing children.  Neither did I.  Less stress that way. 

So I tell Mary, “We just happen to watch a lot of news here.  We didn’t back home, I never liked the news.”

Mary asks, “Do you like it now?”

“No.”

“Then, why are you watching it?”

Good question.  We left the room.