Having a son who attends Northwestern University, I try to keep up with current events there by subscribing to a Google news alert with the search term "Northwestern." The daily summary gives me what I want ... and then some. For example, a recent alert brought these stories to my inbox:
- Tornado damages homes in northwestern Oregon
- Three men die in plane crash in northwestern Ontario
- Suicide bomber kills 3 in northwestern Pakistan
Tragic as these stories are, they are perversely comforting in a guilty, selfish kind of way. The sad news they contain is from far away, far from Northwestern University and my son. When I go looking for stories about college life in late autumn, it's things like football I want to read about, not tornadoes, plane crashes and war. So, for a moment at least, I skim over headlines like those above and click instead on "Northwestern's Upset of Iowa Improves its Bowl Outlook." But those other headlines, just being there, give me the perspective I need to always appreciate just how charmed my family's life has been.
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