Flickering Images and Incessant Voices

The past several summers I have been conducting an experiment in fasting. Each summer I invite the Summer Staff at Twin Rocks to set aside viewing TV and movies for the duration of the summer as a fast of sorts, in order to create more opportunities for creativity and shared experiences within their community of young adults. Each year our Summer Staff seem to embrace this as a worthwhile sacrifice in order to make their summer more meaningful and focused. Here is my confession: I’ve only participated in this ‘fast’ once out of the past four summers! Now, I justified my way out of this based upon the fact that as Program Director I wasn’t actually a part of the Summer Staff community to which this policy applied. (Our year-round staff don’t give up their entertainment options during the summer, why should I have to?) I didn’t usually broadcast this discrepancy to the Summer Staff, but sooner or later it would come to light and I would be a bit sheepish about the whole thing, ready with my list of reasons and rationalizations. This year, however, God made it clear to me that rather than absconding this little detail as I had in the past, it was time to participate in the experiment which I has grown so accustomed to merely observing. With that in mind, and some integrity issues at stake, I am choosing to not watch TV or movies this summer in hopes of realizing all that I miss from the time I spend hoping to be entertained.

So far, the easy part of this whole no TV/movie thing is the fact that the summer television watching season is really pretty bland. Most of the shows I usually follow kick into reruns or aren’t on the air altogether between June and August. (Although the French Open and Wimbledon tennis tournaments are a yearly highlight during the summer months.) The harder part of the reality lies within what television has become in my life: a the way to unwind. At the conclusion of a long, busy day it is simplest and seemingly most enjoyable to lounge on the couch and let my mind be numbed by the flickering images and incessant voices offered through the combination of glass, metal, and plastic that we call a television. Really, television watching takes little thought or brain function. For me, it has become an altogether too easy escape. It limits my productivity in creative endeavors, minimizes the opportunities for meaningful conversation with my wife, and rarely serves to empower or encourage me to much beyond apathy. So for now, I’m thinking this is a good thing. Despite some initial stir-craziness, I am finding other ways to unwind. Listening to music, reading a chapter from a good book, attempting a Sudoku or two, playing guitar, making a few phone calls, or simply taking a bath can be surprisingly helpful experiences at the end of a long day.