Life Without TV

One of my favorite scenes in all of motion picture history occurs when Forrest Gump decides to start running. Frustrated by his unrequited love for Jenny, he runs … seemingly non-stop … for three years … starting a movement … becoming famous.   Forrest Gump runs, presumably, because something inside him compels him to, because he wants to. I’m fairly certain he is compelled by a psychological connection to his childhood with Jenny in which she famously tells him, “Run Forrest Run!” He runs because he wants to.  He stops when it’s time to stop.

So it is with me and walking.   Or, so I wish it were with me and walking, had I but world enough and time…. but that’s for another post.

I walk, almost every day, at least a mile.  I record my walks (thank you Nike Plus!), and I walk consciously.  My carpool could drop me off at work’s door, but I consciously choose to walk.  It’s relaxing, calming.  It allows me time to think, to plan for the day, to think about the day before, and, oxymoronishly, to be in the present moment.  I try to take different paths, to seek out new ways to see the world, though for my morning work walk, I measure the walk to be just the right length so that my Nike Plus indicator reads exactly 1.00 miles when I land at my desk.

In southern California during May and June, we have what’s known as May gray and June gloom.  Many tourists don’t understand why they aren’t getting sunshine when they come here at the beginning of their summer vacations.  California is not the Sunshine State – go east to the land of humid and alligators if you want that.   One of the nice things about May and June in SoCal, though, is that there is a little window of sunshine every day, around mid day, surrounded by periods of gray.  It’s during this gray–early morning, evening, sunset–that a brisk walk is cooling, refreshing, even invigorating.

What does all of this have to do with Life Without TV?   Everything.

TV is the land of unconsciousness, at least that’s what the advertisers want. You, prone, motionless, immovable, unthinking, a waiting vessel, to fill with their ads and products, to passively take in jokes and canned laughter, overly dramatic melodrama (that means metamelomelodrama).   They don’t want you to walk away.  At least not before you’ve bought something or before they can implant in your head the suggestion to buy something.

Talk a walk. Make life conscious.  Give up one 1/2 hour TV show a day and walk.  I can walk 1 mile in 15-17 leisurely minutes.  In 1/2 hour, I can walk 2 miles.   Do this 5 times a week, and you’ve walked 10 miles.  For me, that’s about 900 plus calories a week.   More energy for you, more awake time during the day to spend with your loved ones or doing something you like.

Even if that’s watching TV.  For me, I prefer not to.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 5:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.