Life without Television

When I was a teenager I always thought it would be a good idea not to have television in the house. Yes, I know, it's hard to believe that a teenager would come up with such an idea, but I did. It may have had something to do with the fact that my mom liked to watch those horrible soap operas on the hindi cable channels. If you've been saved from them, count your blessings. They're an endless diatribe (usually how life sucks for women) with many actors taking the role of one character when - you know - someone goes on maternity leave or dies. I hope I've made my distaste for them very clear.

So I thought it would be better to be without that drivel. Unfortunately when I moved here, television was just a fact of life. Until just recently when we've had to make some drastic financial decisions and let go of cable television. What a blessing it has been! It seems like I had always known in my heart that in some way television programs more than just the news and the shows, it programs your mind and if there are kids in the home it should be off. Well, I got my wish.

The results have been fantastic. I am calmer, less irritable, find more creative ways to entertain myself and - surprise, surprise - read a lot more. In fact, would you believe that in the past three weeks I have read more than six whole books cover to cover? Yup. That's right.

And then today I thought we'd watch a movie we borrowed from the library. What's a little harmless entertainment? So I picked out "About a Boy" with Hugh Grant. And the messages that came through shocked me. Now that I've not become deadened to the programming, the messages were loud and clear. The movie was all about fitting in. The bachelor and the kid in the movie all find ways to "be part of the crowd." The kid is laughed at in school because he's different and made fun of, so what does he do? Starts listening to rap music. Yuck. And oh yeah, buys new sneakers. The rich bachelor who's told his life makes no sense because he wants to live by himself and has no kids finds a way to get along and spend Christmas with other people. The point at which I turned it off was when the kid wants to give him lessons in "being a man."

Seriously, give me a break. And this is supposedly an innocent comedy. Now it's easy to say I'm thinking too much, but have you thought that maybe too many people are thinking too little? It's easy to be lulled into complacence in a dark theater, being told a nice colorful story, but no thank you. If that's what fitting in is, I'd rather not. I understand that by saying so I'm already not one of the crowd and that suits me just fine.

I'm glad we got rid of cable. Our family can do just fine without all that drivel.