I just
commented on a blog, that I feel out of touch with the world around me.
I lived most of my life without a cell
phone. If I needed to make a telephone
call I waited until I got home or reached my destination – and I didn’t miss
anything by not having a phone appendage on my body.
It is the same with television. I was a teenager when we had our first
television (black and white 16 inch.) If
there was something I wanted to see I could turn it on at night after supper –
and I wasn’t deprived of news or entertainment.
Today I took
my youngest cat to the vet. There was a
TV in the waiting room blaring Good Morning America. When I go to the VA clinic they have a TV on
– usually on Fox. At the VA hospital
waiting room there is a TV – you can’t get away from it. Our
favorite Italian restaurant – upstairs in the lunch room there are three TVs,
often on different channels. The diners
we frequent all have televisions – usually on some stupid channel. Even
at McDonald's there is a TV going in the eating area.
Almost any waiting room you have to sit in
will have a TV playing. What the hell
is this, that we must be entertained all the time?
We are not
afraid of sickness or disease or destruction - we are afraid of boredom. We must have a TV; or cell phones that
display tweets, face book, internet, instant messaging, texting… We cannot sit quietly anywhere without
something to entertain us. We must have ambient noise.
There is no such thing as quiet, whether at
work, while we eat, while we exercise, while we meditate, while we play, while
we have sex and often while we sleep.
It is a
strange new world and I haven’t adapted.
Sometimes I just like to sit in the quiet.
the Ol’Buzzard
People are afraid of the sounds inside their own head, of their own thoughts. They are afraid to think. I spent many many hours on a tractor pulling a 14' cultivator or a 12' discer and had hours to think. About everything. I hate noise: TV, car radio (unless it is background music I can tune out of my thoughts), anything that distracts me from thinking when I have the chance. People with earbuds in all the time make me wonder about their intelligence level. Why are people afraid to think?
ReplyDeleteI'm sitting in the quiet right now. All I hear is the furnace. I don't require background noise, especially on weekend mornings. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteThe constant media is changing the world by changing the "normal".
ReplyDeleteI don't watch TV - too much noise and movement, too little thought. If I don't get regular time to sit in silence and just 'be', I get stressed and anxious. Imagine how the world might change if everybody just stopped for a few minutes a day to sit in the quiet.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand that David constantly needs noise. It's usually the TV or the internet. I love and need the quiet. I can sit for hours in the livingroom without anything going on except for reading a book. It's quiet that I crave, even while driving. I haven't turned on a radio in my car since 2008. Silence is wonderful,everyone should try it.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a symptom of FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. I love silence and spend as much time with it as I can.
ReplyDeleteI have my tv on even when I'm not watching it..for the noise..but generally I have it on news or music ..like now..listening to dion and the belmonts sing I wonder why..
ReplyDeleteI hate the TVs all over. I try to frequent places without them. Sometimes, if I'm the only one in a waiting room, I just get up and turn it off. It's a really good feeling.
ReplyDeleteWhen I go to the VA and the TV is on Faux News I will change channels if I can find the remote. One of the channels I like to put it on is CBC because most cable systems in the UP carry it!!
ReplyDelete