Every day I sit down to write.
Sometimes it’s a joke, sometimes a script, sometimes an idea for this column. It keeps the brain ticking over and, hopefully, stops the grey matter becoming completely dependent on tea and biscuits.
When I need inspiration, I often turn to the news.
And therein lies the problem.
Scroll through the headlines on any given morning and you could be forgiven for thinking the world has been designed by a particularly miserable committee.
War. Crime. Scandal. Political arguments. Economic gloom. Another crisis. Another disaster.
Then, occasionally, tucked away somewhere near the bottom of the page, you’ll find a story about a dog being rescued, a pensioner raising money for charity or a community coming together to help someone in need.
Why is that usually the small story?
We rightly need journalism that exposes wrongdoing, reports danger and holds people in power to account. Bad news matters.
But so does balance!
Imagine starting the day with a breakfast of nothing but misery. You’d probably want to crawl back under the duvet before the kettle had boiled.
And what about children? They are growing up surrounded by an endless stream of headlines, images and social media posts, often without the emotional tools to make sense of them.
Perhaps we should occasionally remind ourselves that the world is not exclusively made up of the things that make the news.
There are millions of ordinary acts of kindness happening every day. People helping neighbours. Raising money. Volunteering. Checking on someone who lives alone. Doing something good simply because it needs doing.
Maybe that deserves a little more airtime.
I’m not suggesting a Good News Channel should replace the news.
Just that, occasionally, it might be nice to finish watching it without needing a lie-down.