
Don't get me wrong, I have gone without a television for three years at a time before and when I lived on my farm there were only three channels available but actually cutting myself off cold turkey? Television had become a fixture, like the sink, or the bathtub.
In October, I did it! I have been entirely television free for three months. No drug commercials following hard on the heels of "Just say 'No!' to drugs" commercials, no M.A.D.D. commercials interspersed with Whiskey, Rum, or Vodka commercials, no beer commercials where not only do you get the beer and not put on weight BUT you also get the most amazingly good-looking female companion on the face of the earth even though you don't look that impressive - what a relief! The paradoxes presented were almost as mind-boggling as some of the ridiculous fake "reality" shows - does anybody really care about some of these things? Who watches this? Or are we all in the same somnambulant state I remember being in, when I watched out of habit, out of boredom, or to break the silence. I remember that state and how much time I wasted there. It's not something of which I am too proud but at least I don't live there anymore and the beauty is that when I broke the cycle, shortly afterward I got up the nerve to tell my two best friends. One has now given up television too, while the other never really watched that much to begin with. It just takes one person! Turn off your television! You're not missing anything there but if that is all you do after work, you are missing out on your life! Break the habit! Refuse to be programmed! Escape from the entrancing blue screen that has held so many captive for so long! (Many thanks to the artist of the wonderful picture btw)