Love the People the News Talks About
January 2026 Newsletter: Pray, Drop Off a Meal, or Call a Senator Before You Post
I had a different newsletter planned for January.
But the events of this month—particularly recent deaths, arrests, and protests in Minnesota—have prompted me to write something a bit different. I am gutted by what is happening in Minneapolis, as, I know, are many of you. For those of you tuning in from Minneapolis or the surrounding MN area: you are in my thoughts and prayers. Let me know if there is anything I (or others in this community) can do for you.
After some reflection, I wanted to share a reminder of the role(s) we can play when the news is tragic, frustrating, and bleak. Because if you’re anything like me, posting some sort of message or opinion on social media doesn’t feel right or helpful. It’s not necessarily wrong, but it is more like virtue signaling than actually helping. It might make me feel better for a moment, but the satisfaction so quickly turns sour. Arguing with acquaintances on Facebook or Instagram does not really help, either. It has a tendency to cement people in their prior opinions. And alas, tuning out completely doesn’t help, either.
Amid the helplessness of such moments, what do we do?
I am writing this because I went through a period of being “extremely online,” one could say, from about 2013 to 2020. During these years, I worked as a freelancer and associate editor. And I was constantly steeped in news headlines. It was all that I read during the workday. Often, I would log off Twitter (now X), walk to my favorite lunch spot in Washington, D.C., and watch more news (as CNN or some other such news site was nearly always playing in the background). It was my bread and butter, from the time I got to work to the time I took the metro home. (And if my husband, former military, was deployed or traveling? Well, then, I might just turn on the news again after dinner and watch until bedtime. Ugh.)
One journalist I knew (who worked for a far bigger outlet as a political correspondent) once told me that the news was the first thing she read when she opened her eyes, and the last thing she saw before falling asleep.
Perhaps this is how some journalists need to live their lives. If reporting the daily news is their calling, they must be deeply aware of what is going on. Even if it means watching and reading all the time.
But it is not for you and me, friends. This sort of news consumption will reign your emotions: it will drive you to anger, terror, annoyance, and despair. It will make you feel helpless. It will divorce you from the daily, real things happening in your own home. Take it from someone who’s lived it: knowing absolutely everything that is happening right now—whether in Iran, or Ukraine, or Washington, D.C., or Minnesota—is not your calling. It can actually serve as a dangerous distraction from the vocations of your own life, neighborhood, and community.
This does not mean, however, that we should ignore what is going on in the larger world. This is an argument not for ignorance or unplugging. Rather, I hope it is a call to prudence, perspective, and an active vs. passive orientation toward the happenings of our nation and world.
Here are some boundaries I’ve set in place for my news consumption since 2020. They have been very helpful. I pray they are helpful to you.
Check one site, and check it once every couple days at most. If you can, check it once a week. That’s it. Find a reliable source that you trust—preferably a site that tries not to follow a party line. It is more likely to give you the nuance partisan news outlets neglect. If the events of the hour are truly and lastingly important, they will still be talked about a week later. If a credible news outlet, one you find trustworthy and careful, isn’t talking about it, there’s a good chance you should not worry about it. This filters out a lot of momentary “noise,” and allows you to attend to what truly matters.
With time, depending on the events of the moment, you may even find that monthly news checks are just fine. I have discovered that most important things are reported to me via word of mouth. If it matters, someone I know and care about will say, “Did you hear about ___?” To be honest, I would far rather find out most things from my neighbors and family than via a website. It opens up opportunity for dialogue. It gives me an opportunity to listen, because usually I can frankly say, “I had no idea!” And then to follow up with, “What do you think about that?” Or, “Where did you read about this?” If I feel I need more of the story after this conversation, I turn to the aforementioned credible news outlet(s) and do some research of my own. The next time I talk to that person, I then bring up some of my own notes / findings, and we talk further. Even when I differ strongly in my political opinions from the people I’m talking to, I’ve found this sort of dialogue gets us somewhere. If we tried to do this sort of thing on Facebook, we would probably just end up shouting at each other.
I’ve broken this rule quite a bit this week, and so I offer it humbly and with quite a few blushes: don’t get your news from social media. No news scrolling on Instagram or Facebook or X. These are the most incendiary and argumentative spaces from which to receive headlines. They make “doomscrolling” all too easy.
If you must be on social media, be mindful of what you post. It’s okay, at times, to stir up the indignation of your online community, and to call them to action. It’s okay to share wise words from thoughtful commentators. But remember that true conversation and mind-changing rarely happens online.
When you’re upset about something, pray first. And pray a lot. If you do not believe in prayer, consider calling or meeting with a trustworthy friend whose wisdom will guide and help you. These are the spaces where we can find truth and peace. These are the spaces which allows us to reenter public spaces with strength and wisdom.
Do not post online in anger. Wait. Anger achieves so little good. If change in our nation is to happen, it will happen via long-term, deliberate, thoughtful efforts—not rage. (More from Freddie deBoer on this, h/t Matthew Loftus)
When you want to take action, call a representative or a senator. Because we live in a representative republic, your thoughts and opinions truly do matter. Even if you cannot vote (because it isn’t voting season), you have elected representatives whose very job is to vote in your stead. Seek out opportunities to be in dialogue with them. This is an active rather than a passive response. It encourages you to bring the events of the moment into real time conversation, rather than online venting. It takes only a few minutes. And there are ample scripts and tips online that you can use in order to get over that initial nervousness involved in calling an elected official. (I’m not anti-protest, but I think more people remember to protest than to call their representatives, and I think the latter truly does matter!)
In times when you are tempted to be “extremely online,” practice radical generosity and hospitality. Check on those who are personally touched by the news of the moment. In this particular moment, there are refugees and immigrants across our nation—not just in Minnesota—who are deeply frightened. I know several of them. Call, text, or pray. Offer a meal. As Rachel Pieh Jones puts it, “to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself” often means “bringing our skills and connections, sharing resources, and asking for help.” It means “reaching across old boundaries.” It means “lifting others up and learning from them.” It means “potluck resistance.” Care is a human calling. Generosity and hospitality are transcendent, nonpartisan virtues. Regardless of party, there is probably someone you know right now who could use a hug, a prayer, or a pot of soup. Rather than listening to the pundits, listen to them. Rather than posting on social media, talk to them. See what good things come of it.
I guess if all of this could be distilled, I would put it thus: love the people that the news is talking about. Love them through proper attention, prayer, intervention, and service.
Love takes time, attention, and care—three human habits that, I would argue, our current news environment is attacking and weakening. When we read or watch news outlets, it becomes so easy to objectify real human communities and actors. The battle-oriented rhetoric of our era makes this even worse.
But I think… I hope… the above steps might get us a little closer to the true calling of citizens (and Christians). They’re helping me. I pray they help you.
Cheers,
Gracy
Related thoughts from past years:
community prompt
Host a Candlemas party at the beginning of February. Encourage friends to bring a candle and a savory or sweet crepe topping to share.
news + essays
The Plough essay by Rachel Pieh Jones, linked above, is worth reading in full: “the world is seeing another side of America: just how many people are willing to stand by their immigrant neighbors, propelled by a much older mandate: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Mike Sacasas considers waiting as gift: “To wait is to relinquish the desire to exert power, to achieve mastery, or to seek control in cases where such efforts would destroy the very goods that we desire.”
Sam Pressler moves readers to great and welcome their neighbors—before it’s too late: “I lived next to Randy for the last year and a half of his life. In that time, I could’ve practiced what I preached and been a good neighbor. I could’ve checked in on him. I could’ve brought him meals.… But I didn’t, and now I can’t.”
listening
Music: Art Tatum. Django Reinhardt. The National.
Audiobooks: Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather. Hunt, Gather, Parent, by Michaeleen Doucleff.
January Podcasts: Read Me a Poem. Another Life with Joy Clarkson.
Granola Through the Years:
January 2020: “A Decade Past.”
January 2021: “Embracing Risk in 2021.”
January 2022: “How Hospitality Shapes Us.”
January 2023: “Where Does Place Belong?”
January 2024: “The Farm is a Neighborhood.”
I found this very helpful, Gracy. Thank you! It’s been a conundrum to me whether to post about current events on Instagram but I have decided not to. What you write here brings clarity for me with that decision I made. I know there are folks I relate to there who have different opinions, and I’d rather dialogue with them in a different way. I also try actively and with prayer to think of anyone who thinks differently as a complex human and not just Wrong. It’s so easy with social media to think in terms of Right and Wrong, which is a detriment to our Christian call to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Thanks for the shout-out, Gracy! It's as if you manifested a Q&A between me and Mike Sacasas this week, too: https://connectivetissue.substack.com/p/achieving-independence-for-the-sake