What Life Has Prepared Me For

I was watching a crime show on television the other day and the camera angle was slightly unusual: we were shown a parked car from in front & slightly below -- so the car was sort of towering over the viewer.  Someone was walking towards the car, ready to drive it to work.  I turned to my wife & said: when he gets in & starts the car it is going to blow up.  Sure enough, the car blew up.

I turned to my wife & said, “I finally figured out what life has prepared me for.  It has prepared me to watch television shows.”

What a sad statement; what a true statement.

I have watched thousands upon thousands upon thousands of hours of television.  I grew up just as television was emerging as a force in society.  When I went to college, I’d avoid doing homework by watching television.  Only when the television went blank -- and back in those days they stopped broadcasting at one or two a.m. -- did I begin doing my schoolwork, my homework.

I once realized, and this was half my life ago when I was in my thirties, that I could have built half a pyramid if I had devoted the same number of hours to building a pyramid as I devoted to watching television.

I do not mean to moan, or complain, or blame.  I am merely observing that a large chunk of my life, a huge chunk of my life and of the lives of many people who are alive today, has been spent immobile, watching events unfold on a small screen with flickering images.

I could analyze why we do it -- to escape from our own lives -- I could see its good points -- we do learn about the world around us, outside our limited spheres -- I could wish it did not exist, I could blame it for the violence around us.  I could do a great deal, but that is not what I wish to do.

It has been a real part of my life.  It has entertained me, soothed me, educated me.  It has, at times, wasted large chunks of time in the only life I will ever lead.  But I do not blame it, nor do I wish it did not exist.  It, television, is merely one of the forces in my life.  For many years I lived without a television; for many years I watched it mindlessly.  Now I watch it sporadically.  But one thing I do know: I am well versed in the techniques of TV programs.  I know when someone will be killed; I can tell, from a particular camera angle what will happen next.  The many years of watching television has prepared me to watch television.

 

Copyright © 2004   Henry Morgenstein

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