I misplaced my eyeglasses on my desk at the office this morning, There's a bit of constant clutter accumulated there on the desktop with which to contend. I rummaged around the computer and the phone, I checked under the file caddie, then patted down the various piles - but no glasses.

When I couldn't find my glasses, I mentally retraced my steps from the day before. That exercise headed me off to the nearby parking garage to check the car to see if I had left my glasses on the passenger seat.

At the car, and with no glasses to be seen, I started to awfulize.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of current English, "awfulize" means "to imagine something to be as bad as it can possibly be."

Having chosen (emphasis on the chosen part) to embark on this awfulize journey, I conjured a clear vision in my mind. There I was, the day prior, eating a double fish filet on sale at McDonald's for $2.99 (sandwich only - no fries) and reading my newspaper. Except for the instance where a big plop of tarter sauce landed square on the business section, it was an uneventful lunch. Uneventful, that is, until the moment when I visioned myself shoving cardboard sandwich holder, paper tray cover, napkin, sauce stained newspaper...AND eyeglasses into the nearest garbage receptacle.

In my mind, in dramatic technicolor, I had tossed my $200 prescription eyeglasses and ultra hip Harley-Davidson eyeglass holder into the garbage where they were then tossed into a dumpster, then crushed in the back of a garbage truck and finally sent off to their final resting place - the city garbage heap.

None of it was true, mind you, the glasses were safe and sound under this week's copy of Newsweek, however, the awfulizing path my imagination took those glasses was right out of my hand, out of my control and off to oblivion.

It wasn't true, though. It had never been true. It had no basis in fact. Not one detail was accurate.

When we awfulize we run full speed away from reason, competency and even hope. And I would submit that the national media has done just that in covering the current economic downturn. Where they intend to take us on this awfulizing journey is yet to be determined. But off we've run.

This country is rich in resources, rich in talent and innovation and was built on risk takers and hard work. Who said it was always going to be easy?

The economy is news - that's a certainty. But at this moment in time news providers are impacting the economy by blow-by-blow, non-stop, woe is me, continuous coverage of the economy. And the awfulizing the media does - well it's not helpful.

My office cubicle is walled in with material that takes thumbtacks. On my walls I have all kinds of news clippings, inspirational sayings and quotations.

Just to the right of my computer I have the following quote from Eleanor Roosevelt. So simple, so obvious are her words, yet I find them full of real encouragement and wisdom.

"Surely, in light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says "it can't be done."

I look forward to the day when the nation collectively rejects those intent on awfulizing the journey ahead.