Creating new windows.

Is life without a television set possible? A house without a TV? I recall visiting elderly relatives as a child and finding they didn't have a televisions set. It was horrifying. I decided they must have been mean or at least senile, resulting in them being quite unaware, isolated and disconnected from the real world. No wonder I wasn't comfortable around them. It wasn't the age thing, or the lack of cream biscuits on offer, it was that without a TV they were obviously uneducated. Years passed by and television became a window to another world. I could travel, learn, laugh and be critical of all that passed on the screen. Life was televised and television became part of life. So when challenged with the logistics of moving overseas recently, it was planned that the TV would be last possession to be sold and the first new purchase upon arrival. As all good plans must do, this went very astray. Other things took priority, a lack of space kept purchases to a minimum and starting work absorbed any spare time. And yet I survived without this essential window to the world. I bought a newspaper every day which kept me informed of events. It was refreshing to not be bombarded with all the noise, movement and colour used in TV commercials to sell, sell, sell while learning about the days dramas. I joined the local library and learnt about ancient empires, travelling overseas and how to care for chickens all in one night. I took the dogs (and Phil) for walks on the beach and met the locals doing the same, and breathed in the clean air being swept in from the Pacific Ocean. It has all been so refreshing and sublime that I don’t want it to end. So, another mean or senile over 40 I may be but so much more aware and connected to the real world than I ever envisaged I could be. These new windows on the world are great.  You should get some.

What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust. - Salvador Dali (Spanish artist, 1904-1989)