I love movies. I love to sit down and watch a good movie, to enjoy a good story.
Watching beautiful people, both nice and nasty, doing different things, and weaving of the story. I love to do this in company and on my own. To forget time for a while. I’m always refreshed when the movie is done.
I like especially – and most of us do – to see a fresh and interesting idea, or a twist. I can forget whole evenings watching my favorite soap seasons. Of which I could name a few.
Years ago when going through a period of stress, I realized something new. Watching TV daily, increased my stress levels. Or to put it right, when taking a few days with the chatterbox shut off, my stress was less!
This in itself wasn’t so interesting, it was just something I noticed. I’ve never used television that much anyway. I’ve usually had one, but I’ve always been more into making my own programs than just flicking through channels. Thus my TV has always been more of a part of the video player in my house.
Because of this, I’ve never felt that TV or programs played any particular role. When I wanted to watch, I’d watch, when I wanted to do something else, I to that instead.
Actually I’ve always been surprised, when paying a visit to a friend or family, that TV is always turned on! More so I’ve never understood, when at social gatherings, that people can discuss soap characters and their relationships as seriously as if they were real.
I just don’t get it. Whey would anyone choose – willingly – to immerse his life and reality in the unreal of the television? Why would anyone want to have his mind influenced by strangers he has never met, and might not respect if he would – namely the writers and story inventors. Just imagine, when you watch a half hour show, involving perhaps eight characters; they are all invented by one person!
Be that as it may. I don’t care if others want to be influenced by ‘This and That’. Be it TV, religion, politics, other media, or just anybody. It isn’t any of my business. I just want to choose something else, we all choose something. Just like with food, you choose the food you wish to mould you. You’ll die anyway, its your choice who you spend your time.
Recently there came a time when I suffered from depression and sadness. My creative energy was low and I spent whole evenings watching my favorites. I had hours on disc and had it running, night after night, for weeks. Until one evening, almost a year ago, I spent the last night watching. I sat in my comfy chair, had a show running, and suddenly saw myself.
I saw how I spent between three and six hourse, every night. Wasting my life in front of a screen! I wasn’t living my life anymore, I wasn’t doing anything, I wasn’t choosing. I was letting other peoples ideas run through my head and entertaining me. I wasn’t playing any part in that life, I’d become a vegetable. I turned off the TV that night, and haven’t missed it since. Five months later I sold it.
I must admit that once in a while I miss watching a movie, and when that happens I watch a movie. This happens rarely, perhaps twice a month on average. But who cares?
Sometimes I also get bored, but not often. I often read a book, or pay someone a visit, or go out for walks, write or do some website programming, do something with my dogs. There are lots of possibilities. I have grown particularly fond of reading certain kind of crime novels and I often keep the lights off, while reading, until its’ too dark to read.
Thing is. I’m almost never tired, and I enjoy quiet evenings and quiet but active life, rigorously!
I have noticed that people around me, who tire and complain easily, are those who watch TV all of the time.
I’ve also noticed, when visiting others, that people don’t turn off the chatterbox when they have guests. This behavior was unacceptable in the society of my childhood. When we had, or when I have, visitors, the attention is given to the people around and not the bloody screen.
In fact, I don’t see communication around so much. Yes, I see and hear a lot of people forming words, but those who are listening, seem to me, just waiting for their turn. And to be honest – people seem not to have the time to visit, but still they’re spending more free time (on a couch, and tired) than my parents did fifty years ago.
I do not miss TV. In fact I’ve gained a life, untired and unstressed. I want to live it, every minute of my life, until its done. I don’t know how much time I have left, but I won’t spend it in front of the flickering loud screen, getting tired from sitting on a couch.
Oh, and I have discovered fifteen minute naps in the afternoon! Totally refreshing!
