Tragedy has struck my home.
The lamp on our television went out.
I don’t know what to do with myself. The light which once burned so brightly in our home has faded and it feels like we’re in a winter that will never end.
How am I supposed to play Skyrim?
I wanted to watch Empire but now I can’t.
What will Netflix do without my constant companionship?
I haven’t necessarily had all of these thoughts but I’ve had some of them. I don’t feel like we’re trapped in an eternal darkness because our TV has gone out, but I don’t feel that great about it either.
I used to watch a lot of TV when I was younger, like a lot a lot. I didn’t have very many friends so the TV was like my best friend and a babysitter all rolled into one. I would watch TV all afternoon and every night I had “my shows”, like some old grandma.
I don’t watch nearly as much TV now but I still feel its hold in my life, especially when I can’t watch it. Instead of killing dragons or learning that Darth Vader is Luke’s father, I have to read a book or talk with my wife or simply enjoy sitting and doing nothing.
I’m never going to be one of those Christians who says that TV is the worst thing ever and Jesus would bless us more if we all got rid of the magic picture boxes. It is nice, though, to spend some time at home without TV, even if it’s something of a forced fast.
So I’ll enjoy the quiet over the next few days but I can’t lie and say I’m not looking forward to getting the replacement bulb.
Maybe I should have paid for overnight shipping.
How much of a role does TV play in your life?
Poor Scott — last year your wifi, this year your television!
I do a lot of freelance writing for Christian education, and have found that TV now plays more of a tempting role in my life – tempting me to spend time watching when I should be writing, which is my primary ministry at this point. When I yield to that temptation, I have less time to write, and sometimes what I produce suffers. (I will say in my own defense, though, that I watch less TV than I did even as recently as a few years ago.)
There’s also the temptation to accumulate more TV shows and movies than I will ever have time to rewatch (or, in some cases, watch for a first time). Trying to cut back on that in 2012 to things that the family will want to watch together (or at least that my wife will want to watch with me!).
My wife and I watch most of our TV together. She never got into Battlestar Galactica so I had to finish that off before we got married.
I have a lot of old space operas including the complete Firefly, the complete Babylon 5, twenty episodes of Deep Space Nine and the first season of Andromeda. My DS9’s are downloaded into my computer though.
A lot of the best tales are on TV.
I think television is a great format to tell more in-depth stories with longer arcs. I think DS9 did that very well as did the new Battlestar Galactica.