No News

They say, "No news is good news." The SJG says, "No news is no news." In this era of "ghosting," when people simply disappear, when phone calls, emails and texts go unreturned, it's hard not to take it personally. It's hard to detach and think, "Oh, it's fine." Trust me, it isn't fine. Off the top of my keppy, I can think of 18 reasons why someone didn't call or write back. Mostly, it's because they're taking the easy way out. Could anything be worse than the heartless skirting of responsibility? Let me think about that. Yes. Even worse: the urgency to talk. As in, "Can we talk today?" It may be couched politely, but it's a major uh-oh. This is when my "spidey sense" tingles.

It's a feeling deeply embedded in my panic-driven, Russian DNA. No one wants to "talk today" unless it's bad. Which is why I prefer no news at all. If I could live in a news-free world, if I could live in denial, I would be so happy. Except they cruelly left the denial mechanism out of my DNA. There was no room, what with all the panic and worry genes. So instead, I'll just sit here and wait for the news I don't want to hear.