Do you ever struggle with the idea that television is sucking the marrow out of your bones, the blood out of your heart and the cells out of your brain? I mean, really, how many reality shows can we stand in one lifetime? How long can we sit in that recliner munching salty-sweet-crunchy things that are bad for us?
I don’t watch much TV in the summertime but these long winters when it gets dark around 5:30 just make it too easy to end up half-woman, half-vegetable in front of the boob tube. I always feel guilty watching the brain-freeze machine, but after a long day of water aerobics, mornings at my computer, lunch with the girls or my friend Jack, more work…well, that television often becomes my nighttime companion.
One Sunday, just before Lent, the following appeared in our church bulletin: (author unknown)
THE 23rd CHANNEL
The TV is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
It makes me lie down on the sofa.
It leads me away from the faith.
It destroys my soul.
It leads me in the path of sex and violence for the sponsor’s sake.
Yea, though I walk in the shadow of Christian responsibilities,
There will be no interruption for the TV is with me.
It prepares a commercial for me in the presence of my worldliness.
It anoints my head with humanism and consumerism,
My coveting runneth over.
Surely, laziness and ignorance shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house watching TV forever.
After I read that I turned off the TV for a month during Lent. I read, wrote letters, cleaned shelves, helped my son with his science projects, baked cookies, put the photos in albums, did the mending, called my kids. It was the best Lent ever.
Can I do it again? Sanity is calling.
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Well said. Now there's a Lenten challenge we could all take to heart. Wonder how much more organized my life could be if I redirected that te-veg-time?
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