Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Banished

is the TV from our domicile, forever more!

(or for now)

Or to be more precise, it is the satellite box which allows us to use the TV that has been disconnected and removed to the dark recesses of our domestic acquisition graveyard, affectionately known as THE GARAGE. This has been a long time coming, and I'm thrilled and oddly, just mostly relieved it's actually happened.

Somehow, Gavan, who never watches TV thought I was the one lobbying for it to stay. 

Somehow I just assumed he would put up a fight if I suggested we get rid of it.

Somehow, we got our wires crossed, and TV slyly took up residence and blended not-so-quietly into the basement scene.

TV became like an unwanted guest. The one who stays too long, lounging around on the sofa with his feet up while eating all your favorite cereal, leaving you with only the bran flakes to break your fast.

There it sat, on its Ikea throne, beckoning to all who dared to idly lurk nearby hoping for a little relaxation or entertainment. It became so easy, remote in hand to surf mindlessly for hours on end, whilst neglecting dinner dishes or social interaction or exercise. 

YIKES.

I did not grow up on TV. I grew up on the written word and devoured books with a voracious appetite as soon as I could string a few words together.  (Which was pretty young, a fact that I am sure was largely due to my non-televised childhood.)  I remember my dad laughing uproariously and copying down every word from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's clever commentary on the evils of TV, delivered by the moralising Oompa Loompas, as we listened to the book on tape enroute to the coast.  (No google in those days.)

I loved these things about my upbringing, and imagined I'd raise my children the same way.  However, I realized that concessions would have to be made upon entering into a marriage with someone who had a lengthy and fond - if not especially amorous - relationship with the boob tube. Unfortunately, I realized that it was only I who was making concessions, and none of them with my husband.

Instead I was compromising my imagination, my time, my health, my kids and most devastatingly my spiritual well being. Not that TV might break you, but it sure doesn't make you. Less time spent bible-reading, letter/email-writing, friend-visiting, meditating. Less time talking to my husband, reading, playing games with my kids, cleaning up, finding a hobby, getting an education, working on our future. More late nights, which usually result in less prayer. More time being sedentary, which means less clothes in the closet that fit.

I did try my best to keep it off most of the time, and to limit my kids from watching too much, but it was too easy on sick days, or tired days, or holidays, or lazy days, just to turn it on and wile away the hours vacuously. TV, it seems was controlling me, and not the other way around.

I wish I were one of those people who could ignore it, and never turn it on. But with all those terrible and fabulous shows calling my name, I certainly wasn't one of them. I mean did you know you can practically watch Law and Order or one of its spin-offs every hour of the day and night? And that satellite technology means I know who gets the last rose on The Bachelor before anyone else in my time zone?  And all those cute Telus commercials?  I might actually miss those.

But I digress.

TV is out. Gone. Evicted. We are celebrating with quietness and SLEEP! There will be more talking and laughing and games and silliness and definitely, definitely, more of this...


2 comments:

letisha said...

good for you!...as i was reading i could put the word "computer" in place of "tv"...i need to be careful with becoming a blob in front of our computer. thanks for the inspiration to get off my butt and start living life!

mandypants said...

I think I can say "ditto" to my big sisters words....thanks for the inspiration Sharmi!

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