I Don't Want to Break Up with Brian Williams

I’m broken hearted over this whole Brian Williams thing.

By all accounts, Williams is a gifted storyteller. He’s known for spinning yarns, entertaining small groups of colleagues and coworkers with quips and tales. He’s engaging and magnetic and his stories, while sometimes inaccurate, are amusing and impressive.

The problem with that is Williams is also a journalist. In the United States we expect our journalists to tell the truth.

It’s important to make the distinction that in our country we hold journalists to a standard of honesty that other nations simply don’t impose.

Now that it’s publicly acknowledged that Brian Williams tells tales, the integrity of his reporting is being questioned. Even though he’s never falsely reported a story while sitting at the news desk.

To Fear or Not to Fear?

I admit I’m not as afraid of some things as I should be. In fact, I have what some other moms might consider to be an appalling lack of germ phobia. Tonight, when a kid at Target dropped his pacifier on the ground, I was tempted to tell the mom to just suck on it herself and then give it back to him.

Only after I refrained from offering this unsolicited advice did it occur to me that she might fear her own mouth buzzing with Target floor germs, let alone the baby’s.

I congratulate my lack of germ phobia for HB’s stellar immune system. I never laid a disposable mat on the restaurant table. I operated under the presumption that the table was clean enough. I didn’t sterilize her pacifier or use bottled water in her formula. Straight out of the tap. Not even filtered.

I’m also not afraid of public bathrooms, though we do take a few basic precautions before using them.

Prevention

I don’t carry anti-bacterial gel or lotion or spray or wipes or suppositories.

It’s not that I don’t understand the basic science of germs or that I mean to intentionally disrespect their disease and ickiness powers. I just don’t have room in my life for that much fear. Some other things I can’t be bothered to fear include China, pro-Life activists, Satan, the apocalypse, infidelity, and aging.

All fear requires a certain amount of suspiciousness. And suspiciousness must be supported by investigation and contemplation, or in the absence of those rational behaviors, speculation and agitation can be substituted.