Hello, Friends.
Well, it’s been a year since I vowed to shut the boob tube off and see what would happen. So, what did happen?
Hm, let’s see. I moved to Santa Fe. Haven’t been near a subway or Chinese food restaurant in 4.5 months, unprecedented in my life. I have no idea what’s happened on All My Children – oh, wait, didn’t I hear it went off the air? I missed all those end-of-year wrap-ups I’m sure have been going on since Christmas. And I have no clue what new sit-coms or must-see dramas have made their debut.
All that’s okay (except maybe the no Chinese food part). There are days when I feel isolated or uninformed, despite having the internet and radio to resource. I didn’t get to watch any politics, which saved my blood from boiling but left me somewhat ignorant about what the blowhards are doing to our country this time. I probably missed several televised revolutions. But again, all that’s okay.
There were a couple days in October when I broke down and watched a few minutes of a sit-com, and I watched 2 episodes of Fringe before deciding the invasive commercials weren’t worth it. And, I did stream a fair amount of Netflix – one whole day was devoted to Hoarders and Storage Wars. I downloaded all seven episodes of The Walking Dead from iTunes, as well as Prime Suspect and a few CSIs. So I’d have to say that officially I didn’t quite make it a year without television. I did, however, change my viewing habits from all-day constant devotion to the telly, to whole days and weeks when I unplugged it altogether.
Did it make me a more spiritual and connected person? Asking myself that today, I’d have to say “no,” or perhaps just negligibly so. I didn’t learn to meditate, or discover the power to change all my other ugly habits. I still numbed out with some frequency, and I’m not at all where I want to be in my life. While I did write another 200 or so pages of my novel, it’s not quite finished. While I did start to go hiking and hit the gym, of late I’ve let that go. Other issues have cropped up, and there are days when I wonder if the move here was a good idea.
I’m still grateful for the beautiful surroundings in Santa Fe; for the birds in my yard and the quiet and the mountains, the pretty snow that doesn’t turn black and yellow from too many people and dogs. I’ve even learned to occasionally eat green chile, though it’ll never be my favorite thing. But I still have a long way to go in my personal growth.
Will I go back to watching the television like I used to? I can’t speak for the future, but for now I have no plans to change my new habits. I’ll always love certain shows, and I really appreciate the nightly news, but I don’t want to become overwhelmed by the magnetism of the tube. I don’t want to be hypnotized into helplessly watching hours of mediocre crap or punditry designed to fill time and aggrandize certain agendas. I want the power to select and ingest my own data, and to shut it off when I’ve had enough. I’ve appreciated NPR and BBC News on the radio more than I can say.
So, here’s to a new year – one without a grand resolution or experiment, but one with high hopes nonetheless. Happy 2012, everyone!
TV Slayer 2011
