Kill Your TV

I spent last evening as I spend nearly every evening before retiring, reading a book and communing with the dogs and cats. Click has become much saucier over the past couple of weeks, not spending all her time hiding in the loft and praying Butch doesn't come bother her. Yesterday evening she was draped over my arm, doing her level best to keep me from concentrating on my book when I could be doing more important things like paying attention to her. Magnus had gone into his nightly coma from which he would not emerge for more than twelve hours. Fritz and Ghost were keeping an eye on the windows for me, and Butch was nowhere to be seen.

All about us it was peaceful, and except that some might argue I'd have used my time more profitably with a non-fiction book there was nothing the least bit unhealthy in any part of the mix. I was thinking about that this sunrise, while making honey butter and planning my day. I grew up addicted to television, as I suppose many people in my generation did. When I was old enough to start making my own decisions I scheduled many and many an evening and weekend around the TV Guide. If I could have back all the hours I wasted on that idiot box, I'd probably be in my thirties now.

I cut back to movies and a few specific cable channels maybe ten years ago, but still spent the majority of my slack time in front of the box. The fare may have been a bit less unwholesome, but it was still time pissed away never to return. A few years ago I kicked the whole thing loose. Now I've got a DVD player and a collection of movies that, to be truthful, I rarely watch.

To say the very least this excision has not harmed me in any smallest way. I've a lot more time on my hands now and I find useful and interesting ways to fill it. It occurred to me just yesterday afternoon, in answer to an imagined question from an imaginary visitor, that I am never bored. I have no regular job, no visitors, no television, a limited supply of books - none of the things most people use to fill their time. And I...am...never...bored. Oh, sometimes I get tired of some particular activity. Then I go off and perform some other activity. There's no shortage of things to do, and I'm not just talking about dreary chores. There's all sorts of little construction projects (and one big one), there's canyons to be walked ... I've hiked these hills for years now, and they still surprise me around damned near every corner.

My own thoughts even fail to bore me. I remember once being almost terrified at the thought of being left with nothing whatever to do, because then I couldn't be distracted from my own thoughts, my own self. Well, with the exception of the boys my own self is the only company I've kept for the past eight months, and you know what? I'm not as bad as all that.

I wonder how many people spend all their disposable time on distraction. I wonder how many of them ever stop and ask themselves, distraction from what? What are we running from, that we need to bury our head in a box and blot out the world around us? If the world around us is that unbearable, the time has clearly come to either change it or move somewhere else. But that's not what we're trained to do. That's not what the TV has trained us to do. "I can't right now, Honey. Friends is on." Yeah - if we've ever heard or spoken a similar line, it should be a clear sign to us that there's a real problem.

Step one toward a more fulfilling and purposeful life, I think: Kill Your TV.