Watching TV

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.