lately

I've been mostly not watching television for the past year or so. Well, mostly since getting out of Mundelein. Kicked the habit in San Antonio and am having no trouble with it here in Mahwah where there's a pretty nice wide screen TV right down the hall. But I rarely feel the need to use it. I just go in sometimes, if somebody else is in there. Just to be sociable. I know I'm not any better than you who do watch it, but I don't miss it.

What have I missed? I've missed being daily disappointed by the Obama administration. I've missed daily being assaulted by all of television's yelling and selling. I've missed the general sleaze ... I know something's going on about Tiger Woods ... but only via fourth- or fifth-hand echoes over the internet ... and lunch-table chat.

I've certainly become an under-informed person ... and am willing to risk becoming an uninformed one.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against screens the way Mr. Wendell Berry is against screens. I'm loving old movies more and more, it seems. I watch them on my computers and only very rarely on that big TV down the hall. So, I'm still willing to let myself be entranced by electricity. I watch these dvds over and over again, picking this one or that depending on my mood.

But ordinary TV cuts into my movie time and my internet time. And any day now I'm going to slow down on the internet because it cuts down on my book-reading time & walking around time. It may even cut into my thinking about stuff time, but I'm not so sure about that since here I am ... right now on the internet, thinking about stuff.

And maybe it's time to think a little life back into this blog. We'll see.

Comments

[John Clark]

I find that the box (can we still call it a box?) is a great void. It seems to suck the life force from you if allowed to do so. Still, it can be a pleasant distraction as long as you maintain control. Watching cooking shows or science shows, yes even the odd episode of 30 Rock, can lighten the load of a long day.

Sadly, more often than not I find that there is nothing to be gained from the supposed news organizations. John Stewart is more unbiased than the peddlers distortion journalism.

And then there is college basketball. How would I live without howling at the referee? It's too cold to leave my recliner and actually go to a game.

I suppose moderation would be the key. Then again, I'm not too sure we wouldn't be better off if the lights went out and we had to read by candle light.

[brtom]

John, I'm not a purist on this matter ... or much of any other matter, either. Without a doubt, TV has its aesthetic and analgesic spirits. Lacking the spectator sports gene, I tend to forget that most people use it to stay in touch with their favorite players/teams ... in fact, most people seem to like TV just fine ... and that's okay by me.

But I've found some pleasure in stepping away from it. I don't think that has made me a better person in relation to others ... but I'm feeling a tad saner ... sort of on the same track as realizing that my life doesn't need a few hundred student papers to process every week.

I'd be real sorry to see the grid go down. I'd almost certainly starve to death.

[suzannahhh]

makes me happy:
the thought of more you
to be reading!