Sometimes real life interferes with the news. Good.

It’s my job to be a news junkie and follow politics and politics coming out of Washington. But it is also my hobby to report on “the art of power,” as Nancy Pelosi titled her most recent book, and on the drama of American democracy. Sometimes politicians rise to the occasion, often not. In any case, there is a lot to write about.

Lately, however, life has interfered in ways both good and bad, and the world of politics has had to take a back seat. Because I experienced life without an obsession with politics and government, I viewed the latest developments more like many other Americans – superficially or not at all.

It’s good to be reminded that others aren’t so deeply invested in the issue, that Americans’ news consumption is often superficial, and that they rely on their gut as much as their head to form opinions and vote in the election . And in the end, we all only get one ballot – despite the conspiratorial claims of Trump and the MAGA Republicans.

For me, the first distraction was a most welcome one: my younger daughter got married. The long weekend was perfect. Surrendering myself entirely to the family and happiness of the bride’s mother, I had neither time nor inclination to read or watch the news, other than glancing at my smartwatch when it blared over a message and was easily ignored.

Since life was both cruel and kind, the second distraction was sad: Just as I was packing for the wedding in Chicago, Neil King Jr., a longtime friend and former Wall Street Journal colleague, succumbed to cancer. This man knew how to live – in remission, Neil had walked from Washington to New York City and then written a riveting memoir of his American Ramble. And in the end he also showed how to die. Weeks earlier, during a final treatment, he tried to organize a trip for some of us to a Washington Nationals game.

The morning after I returned from Chicago, I attended Neil’s funeral mass on Capitol Hill with my happy hangover. Then the joint eulogy from Neil’s two daughters transformed the tears of joy of my past days into a different direction. Afterwards, among journalist and politician friends, none of us talked about Trump, Kamala Harris, budget votes in Congress or new polls.

All in all, I spent almost a week riding a personal rollercoaster, ignoring newspapers, websites, and cable television. What did I “miss”? Variations on familiar themes. And in a way, not sticking to the news makes the point stand out.

There was the CNN bombshell that jeopardized the victory of the Republican Party, including Trump, in necessarily victorious North Carolina. The already beleaguered candidate for governor there, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, has reportedly made bigoted and lewd social media posts in the past, once calling himself a “black Nazi” and a “pervert” on a porn site and pro-slavery advocated. (“I would definitely buy a few,” he quipped obscenely.) Robinson denied the allegations, but Trump ghosted him anyway, even as Harris reminded voters in video ads during the campaign that the former president didn’t just support Robinson , but also praised him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

As I attended the wedding rehearsal, Bernie Moreno, the MAGA Senate candidate in Ohio, uttered what could well be the faux pas of the election season (which is saying something) and possibly secured the well-deserved re-election of Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. Moreno appeared stunned at a town hall that suburban women are so upset about the loss of abortion rights, especially women over 50. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s a problem for you,'” he quipped. Ha ha. It’s a selfish, ignorant man who doesn’t understand that we care about the rights of our daughters, nieces, younger acquaintances and millions of other women we will never meet.

Meanwhile, Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, continued their racist lies about pet-eating Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, which in turn perpetuated right-wing hatred and threats against Vance’s voters. I naively thought they would drop the hateful nativist schtick. Their wickedness has no bottom.

Abroad, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu began what appeared to be a long-feared expansion of war in the Middle East, further raising questions about U.S. support for Israel in the presidential election campaign. That could bode badly for Democrats in battleground Michigan, with its sizable Arab-American population.

Oh, and new polls have been released that still show a too-close race between Trump and Harris. There’s nothing new there.

See, I’ve caught up. I’m back to covering news and politics all day every day. At the same time, I’m more aware that most other people aren’t as addicted; They focus, as they should, on their livelihoods and their families, and on the triumphs, tragedies and ennui of the circle of life. For a political journalist, this is good to appreciate.

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