Fall television premieres, our television has croaked. Our TV is an 11 year old dinosaur in this age of high digital pixel plasmic density lucidly clear picture with 14 dimensional home theatre sound. In fact, just to run our DVD player purchased only four years ago, we had to buy some high tech electronic your TV is a dinosaur converter box.
The first seven years of our marriage we didn't even own a television. When we got married, I asked Husband about a TV and he said, "Well, I really wanted our first year to be about spending time together." Everyone say, "Aaaaaaah!" I did, and was hooked, lined and sinkered for that idea. Of course, the fact that the first year of our marriage was spent overseas with only one English channel didn't make that transition all too difficult.
Naturally when we moved back to the States, I expected to receive a TV for our one year anniversary. Nooooo, that wasn't in the plan. Apparently, Husband hoped that I would so love the year without TV that I would plead with him never, ever to have one. Admittedly, this woman who was raised in a TV is on all the time home had trouble with this initially. I did grow to enjoy the benefits that came without a television. I read almost constantly. I found and listened to excellent Christian radio programs and shows. I was very productive in cooking, entertaining, and organizing my home. I got a lot more rest because I didn't stay up to see the news, and so on.
However, after our son was born and then admitted to the hospital for long term care, the TV being always in the hospital room whiled away many long hours--numbing my mind to the stark realities that daily loomed. I watched TBS and Lifetime television ad nauseum. I probably saw every episode from the beginning of Saved By The Bell and Little House on the Prairie. Crying myself silly over every tragic Lifetime movie kept me from crying myself insane over my personal tragedy.
After my son died, not only was the grief overwhelming, but I could not physically handle silence. My mind and thoughts became too large, too loud, and too painful. Husband, in desperation almost, bought a television for me. I cried over Huggies commercials then, and still the Lifetime movies, but again the overall numbing effect of television kept me from real focus. I didn't care what I watched, I just wanted something else to consume me instead of the hurt.
That television has now croaked. I feel a bit ambivalent about it all because the personal discipline of watching television has been a challenge in my life. It can become too easy and too convenient to sack out on the red couch and not be disciplined in what we view. We do not have cable or satellite or such, but have the 70's gold standard of rabbit ears. While that decision for a while moderated the decline of viewing choices, now there is good argument that cable TV offers better options as network television seems determined to bring he*ll in a handbasket through the screen.
It is all moot for us right now, because the dinosaur is extinct. I don't know what we'll do about it. The price tag on today's technology is intimidating. I see the croaking as very possibly the Lord's working to motivate me to a greater deliberation of how I spend my evenings.
My TV died about a year ago and I chose not to replace it. I found that I have much more time to pursue prayer, Bible study, fellowship and service and much less struggle to keep my thoughts captive to Jesus Christ. Others think I am insane but I am grateful for the change. Grateful for His Grace, Wendy
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have a TV our first year of marriage either. I convinced my husband to get one 18 months after I said "I do" since I was trying to get a job in TV news at the time, and "it might help to know the local stations so I don't make a complete idiot of myself during an interview."
ReplyDeleteEver since we had kids, I lost control of the remote. We mostly watch Noggin, PBS Kids and Disney these days, and I'm too exhausted at night to watch anything. And really, after years in the TV business, I don't miss it.
But I can relate to what you're saying about TV filling the vacuum because I use the Internet as the same sort of drug.
Well TV certainly hasn't negatively affected your wonderful writing skills and being able to express yourself creatively with words! Blessings...
ReplyDeleteWe had no tv the first year we were married, and when we bought one, we agreed that we would get rid of it whenever we conceived children.
ReplyDeleteI think it makes sense to view tv like a drug - sometimes we genuinely need its medicating influence to get through things (just like you did), but other times it gets addictive and starts to negatively affect our lives.
If you decide not to replace it, you might be surprised. Tv just doesn't mean what it used to, now in the era of the internet. You could entertain or soothe yourself just as much when necessary with a computer or portable dvd player, for less money and with more control (no commercials, you choose what movies you watch, no creepy late-night gross stuff). We still watch plenty of movies (maybe too many), but since we schedule it, we don't feel trapped in the schedule or content that the networks choose.
We have a dinosaur TV that's probably beginning to breathe its last, too. We don't watch a lot, a lot, but still I find the need to be better at discerning than we are.
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