Silence is Golden

I didn't realize until just recently how much I love silence. We recently had out of town company stay with us for a few weeks for Thanksgiving. One of my relatives loves TV. The TV is on constantly. She loves the news and she loves crime shows. Now, I do have an affinity for TV. Afterall, I got 49 out of 50 my first go-round of this quiz.

But the thing is, after a while, all that TV is just noise to me. When I turn it off, I hear so much more. I can think. I can be creative. I find that I do more because I don't have some talking head distracting me. I recently went 6 months without watching TV. I picked up crocheting and knitting, and I began a quilt. I learned how to (finally) bake bread from scratch. I didn't miss it.

But then, for one reason or another, I turned it back on. At first it was just whatever was on HGTV or the Food Network. Eventually I meandered over to The Style Network, which led to my occasional forays into VH1. And now I've found myself in this super lazy mode. I've got the TV on until I go to bed. I wake up more tired every day.

Years ago, I went to church with a family that had 6 kids. I worked with the husband, and one day he told me that his family did not have a TV, and that his children had never even seen TV! I seriously thought they were whacked out. I mean, I could not fathom not watching TV. Fifteen years later, I am totally understanding where they were coming from.

It's getting harder and harder as a Christian to find shows that aren't degrading, demoralizing and just downright offensive to me as a believer. The other night, I saw a crime drama about a serial killer who thought he was Jesus. He killed people the way the original 12 disciples were martyred. Of course he was psychotic, but I got the distinct feeling that the writer sorta felt that perhaps all "religious" people are a bit off, and the only people worth their salt are scientists--you know, the ones who believe solely in "logic".

If it's not gratuitous violence, it's gratuitous sex. It seems these days anything goes. I've gotta say, I've had enough. I am seriously considering canceling my cable subscription. Of course, I have people in my household that would have a conniption and probably suffer extreme TV withdrawals. The other problem is that we have one of those bundles where you get cable, high speed Internet and phone service 'for one low price'. The only way to get rid of cable is to get rid of everything else. Unfortunately, I have severe anxiety when I think about canceling Internet service. One step at a time. I will turn off the TV. Maybe in about a year I'll revisit the Internet thing. Who knows, in a year's time I probably will raise goats and learn how to spin yarn. Nah, but I might think about it.