I was hopeless. I would watch anything… penguin racing… anything. Oh, sure, I watched PBS to be educated and smart. I watched Archie Bunker for working class wisdom. I watched sports and drank beer. I watched, I watched, I watched. I watched 500 channels of pure boredom. My brain was dead. I didn’t talk, I didn’t think, I didn’t do. I was living the 3 screen life. (car windscreen, work computer screen, home TV screen). Network advertisers were telling me who to be, what to think, how to live.
Then one day, I just turned it off. Cold Turkey.
Oh, I still have a hard time when I go into a bar where the game is on, or at a friend’s house. I watch. My brain goes numb and I watch. But now I know it’s happening to me, and I can break the trance.
So, now what. There’s a lot of time that I used to spend being numb. What to do? Left alone, my brain can be a dangerous place. I discovered some places; some really interesting path to explore.
I discovered the public library. My mother was a library supporter. I remember the first library she took me to in Scotia, New York. Today it’s still small and in the original wood frame building, but thriving.
I discovered YouTube. Not just the stupid stuff, but if you look a little, there’s our President every day, and TED conferences, and New Scientist,and TMI all stuff that’s published and I check it every day.
I worried a little about Karl Rove knowing what I was reading, but checked the box in proud defiance and started an on-line reading history in October of 2008. Since then I have checked out (and returned!) 308 items. Books, Books-on-Tape, CDs, DVDs, records, sheet music everything. The topics cover such a wide range, and it’s getting wider and and more focused at the same time.
OMG. I’ve just been looking at the list… it’s sooo much and so wide.
Clintons and Bushes, Israelis and Arabs, Russians and Chinese, Indians and Europeans, Industrial Revolution and French Revolution, History; Pilgrims, Circumnavigation, Aviation, Presidents, Wars; civil, international, Peace to end all peace, People; love stories, trials, discoveries, catastrophic successes and failures, Energy; oil, coal, nuclear, wind, wave and sun. Lobster love and oysters, fish heritage, and cod fishing. Genomes and human heritage; All of us back to Africa, Music; history, chants, religious, jazz, blues, rock and on and on and on.
Right now, I’m reading the story of a man born with no eyes, and a love story of a woman who had a heart attack while running and the stress in her family. Next up the story of the Mob and Cuba. I can’t wait. And tonight there will be new things in YouTube.
I’m so glad I killed the TV.
