About Television

I’m not much of a television watcher. It’s not that I never have been. I have. In fact, I used to come home from work, flip on the TV, and erase every thought I had swimming around my head. My favorite thing to do was grab a bag of curly chips and a tub of sour cream dip, and sit in my own corner of my very comfortable sofa. I thought it relaxed me. I thought it was my way to transition from my work day to my home night. I could escape into the world of television (crime dramas are my favorite), and dip and crunch and dip and crunch, until it was time for bed.

Then, one morning on my way to work, I caught myself thinking random thoughts. They were all scary. All of them were about death, or murder, or how unsafe the neighborhoods are. Strangely, though I thought I was listening to my radio morning show DJ’s laughing and telling stories, I was somehow rerunning all of the episodes of every crime drama I had ever seen on some background track in my head. And I didn’t like how it made me feel. I didn’t like how it snuck into my attitudes and my general disposition… the distrust, the uneasiness of seeing strangers walking toward me, the skepticism I was developing about parks and playgrounds… 

I have to admit, I was very surprised to recognize that morning how much of my attitude had been transformed by what I was seeing on television. I know very well that television is make-believe. I understand that the stories are not true. I even recognize that the “based on a true story” shows are still “Hollywoodified,” (a word I invented, of course, to mean more made-up than true). Still, some part of my subconscious mind was on full buy-in. I decided right then and there, I don’t want to be programmed by my television programs.

It makes me wonder, though. How many things bombard our conscious and subconscious thinking on a daily basis? How many, and exactly what, thoughts are we having, running on some inaudible background track that make us feel weary, or nervous, or inadequate, or discouraged? How many of them are coming from sources we can “turn off” as easily as we can turn off a television set, if only we could recognize their source? Is a coworker always complaining about her job, making mine less attractive, too? Can I “turn off” the sadness of illness in a patient’s room, if I focus on the family love that has an opportunity, in that situation, to show itself? When could I be reprogramming myself to feel joy, instead of jealousy, stress, or resentment?  

 I still watch my favorite crime dramas, sometimes. About once a month or so, I like to catch up with the characters I had gotten to know. Strangely, but as a testament to how much of my mind they really did occupy, I kind of miss them. The difference is that now, I recognize my shows for what they are: sneaky little programs that want to occupy my brain and order my thoughts for me. Oh, and they make me eat chips with dip… way too many chips with dip.

The Living in Joy Challenge: The next time you would normally sit down in front of the television to “unwind,” turn it off. Spend the hour in your TV spot, talking to your husband, one of your children, or one of your friends about their life’s dreams and aspirations. Start with “What would you do, if you could do anything at all?” Now that’s worth programming into your subconscious mind. As always, I’ll be looking for your comments. J