Today's post is from my friend ToriLynn...
There are probably one hundred reasons I waste my time
watching TV several hours a day. And probably a few reasons of why it is so
hard to break the habit.
When I was a kid, the default on Saturday and in the
evenings was to be plopped in front of the TV. We watched whatever the parents
wanted. We were rather well-versed on current events because they watched the
news and all the things going on. I remember the Nixon/Kennedy debate. I
remember the hullabaloo after Kennedy was shot. I remember Lyndon B Johnson
lifting his beagle up by its ears. I remember the moon landing footage,
and the riots in Watts and the tanks going down Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California.
And I remember the Mr. Ed song, ‘A horse is a horse of course of course, unless
of course it's a talking horse...’ and many more, Casper, and Miss Nancy, and
Captain Kangaroo. And Sunday at 7 p.m. was an hour of the Wonderful World of
Disney programs.
It's not that I (we) didn't play outside or in our rooms. We
sure did! But my mom wasn't a "Go outside and play!" type of a
mother, most of the time. Sometimes... but not usually. If we got
rambunctious that was another story. We rode bikes and climbed on rocks
and in trees and shot our little cowboy pistols at bad guys and went over to
the friend's house down the street to play hide and seek in the dark and my
sister and I even had a Kool-Aid stand for 2¢ a paper cup. But we always
came in before supper and watched afternoon cartoons. I don't know why.
As a little girl, I contracted Rheumatic Fever and had to
not be active for months at a time. The second time I got it, I was in bed for
six weeks. My mom piggy-backed me to the bathroom because she followed the doctor's instructions to the tee. That lasted a day or so before she decided that I was
just across the hall from the toilet and I was ten and pretty normal size for
my age... not a little kid. But I was in bed with books and the teacher,
Mr. Hackett, came by with homework once a week. That was when I read Black
Beauty and the one thing I remember most was that Ginger, the horse, got
her tail cut down to nothing and couldn't swat flies away from her anymore.
That was probably when I learned to be a voracious reader. But still, you could
watch TV from the couch made up as a bed... And on my 11th birthday, the girls
came over and we had a dinner party. We played pin the tail on the donkey out
back, and then we went in to watch the first ever showing of "Flipper,
faster than lightning, no one you see is smarter than he... under the
sea." So, TV was used as an enforcement for keeping quiet. Which may
have led to "self-medicating" on TV as an adult. It's always about
being physically quiet.
I still read sometimes, but my sight isn't as good as it
used to be and you can make the print on electronics as big as you want it to
be. (The Bible is not very generous in the print sizes.) Electronic
research is so nice now, but it's not as trustworthy as the old card catalogue
and running around the library looking for the reference books, nor as fun as
writing information out and having all the papers spread around, cutting
the sections apart and putting them in order. The original cut and paste. Yet
the default is TV or YouTube or scrolling.
Why is TV the default when I'm feeling restless? Who
knows? But I am currently working on doing other activities. Yes, I still watch
things, but I'm trying to do one thing between Andy Griffith and Leave It To
Beaver; between "Matlock" and Elsbeth. Eventually, when Father Brown
episodes run out, I will not replace it with another show, but with a project
or walking the dog a second time. One new practice, that I pray I can stick to
daily, is writing 15 minutes a day. Perhaps praying a little more would be a
very good thing. My health is good enough to be active, pickleball? More time
cleaning house and doing yard work? Only the LORD knows. But with prayer and
encouragement, it can change and my life can be more productive.
