Monday November 28 2016  LIFE SHOULD BE LIVED, EXPLORED, AND TASTED

We are never too old to discover new insights to ourselves.  Well, today that happened to me. 

When our children were quite young I was listening to a program on the television that our daughter was avidly watching.  I didn’t like the sounds of the dialogue I heard on the TV as children were speaking in disrespectful tones, going behind their parents back and doing what they were told not to do.  I also did not like how the young teens in the show talked back to their parents. 

I called Rebecca to the dinner table and she had a fit.  She wanted to watch the rest of her show (we never had television on during dinner) and have me postpone dinner until it was over.  The food was hot and already on the table, ready to eat.  I insisted she come and sit down and she spoke to me like she had never done before, quite insolent and rude.  I already didn’t like the show and she had just made me realize exactly why.  Her tone was that of the kids on the show, belittling and sarcastic.  A light bulb moment for me!

After dinner I spoke with Dave and told him my light bulb idea.  I wanted to take the television out of the home.  I did not want our children influenced by the things I heard, the ideas being presented, the commercials, and the availability of what I termed as “trash” that was available back in the early 1980’s.  Dave had another idea.  We would just turn the TV off and he could watch TV in his office after the kids were in bed.  We owned a VCR and allowed the children to tape certain shows to watch on Saturday. 

Perhaps the above scenario sounds a bit controlling and it probably was.  For a few weeks our son and daughter were given one VHS cassette tape and they could tape the shows that passed our scrutiny.  Most shows were off limits.  Courtland was in Kindergarten so he wanted a few cartoons.  Rebecca chose a few shows a bit more sophisticated which passed our inspection.  They were so excited to get up on Saturday and watch a couple of the shows.  That lasted about three or four weeks and then they lost interest in taping anything.  The weaning from TV was accomplished successfully without many labor pains.  Not watching TV became the new normal.  There was never any further discussion about it.

Now let’s fast forward to today as I listened to a series of sermons online that were preached in January 2010.  The series was titled “The Decades” and it went through the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, 2000’s, with 2010 written like this “The Decade of 2010 and Beyond – The decade of…”.  With the use of video footage the minister spoke about different aspects of each decade such as television shows, movies produced, people who were popular, law changes, and behavioral changes, as he built a scenario as to where our society had been, was currently, and was heading. 

The sermons were quite an interesting capsule of each decade.  I was presented with a lot of reminders and memories of news events, styles, and fads.  There were also entire aspects of the decades that were totally void to me.  As I watched the video unfold while the minister spoke I realized I had never even heard of most of the television programs.  I had heard of the Simpsons but I have never even seen one episode, even to this day.  Show after show was foreign to me.  I finally had a realization of how a huge segment of my life is really different than what most people have experienced in theirs. 

Very seldom did Dave and I ever go to the movie theater so I didn’t know many of the stars over the decades.  I didn’t read many magazines that had to do with mass media and so I guess we (and our children) have been deprived of having the messages of the world poured into our lives over the past 40 years or more.  Years after Rebecca was grown she said to me, “Mom, I don’t know how we would have accomplished doing so much if you had not turned the TV off”. 

When Rebecca moved away from home we gave her a brand new television set.  Rebecca did not take the TV with her when she moved.  Each time she came home we asked her to take it and she said she had no use for it.  We had even purchased a 3 year extended warranty policy.  The policy long ago expired.  I kid you not, that huge TV lived in its box, in my library closet for 20 years, nestled securely in its original packaging.  We gave it away at our garage sale this past June, box and all.

Our son has two boys and they do not watch television either.  They do have movies and some select games they play on electronic devices for short periods at a time.  If time allows they do get to enjoy movies that Dad selects on their Friday night movie night.  And sometimes gramma and grandpa are invited over to watch the movie with them.  I’m living the childhood that I never experienced.  The “I Love Lucy” show made me upset so my mother curbed my TV diet as well.  I never missed it because I was too busy playing outside!  I pretty much had the run of the projects we lived in and was always coming up with new ideas as to how to do things.  Maybe that will be another blog. 

 

LIFE SHOULD BE LIVED, EXPLORED, AND TASTED

Kathleen Martens

November 28, 2016

http://www.visionsofpoetry.com

 

Oh the memories

That we keep.

Some instilled with purpose,

Some just seep.

 

Think of the messages

Kids see and hear

On television screens

When parents aren’t near.

 

Violence and profanity

Heard and seen

In stereo sound

On a 52 inch screen.

 

Over and over

Commercials tout

What their life

Should be all about.

 

Trailers of upcoming

Horror pictures

Just seem normal,

Like a simple fixture.

 

And we wonder why

Our children cry

And bully and kill

Without a blink of an eye.

 

And the profanity

That is spoken,

Signifies a society

Which is broken.

 

Television uncensored

With no concerns,

While the receptive mind

Of a child learns.

 

Movies and news

Beyond comprehension,

Cause children to waver

In a lost dimension.

 

Such a different world

A child lives in

When influenced by TV

And has no friends.

 

Life should be lived

Explored and tasted,

Rather than sitting,

Their childhood wasted.

 

Give pause and thought

To what your children see.

Are you helping them become

The best they can be?

 

Being extremely selective

With limited use

Helps grow awesome kids

Without a short fuse.

 

And life and love

And gentle behavior

Are what you’ll sow

Without waver.

 

Children are different,

Home life improves

When they play outside

Instead of by the tube.

 

And mom and dad

May even find

That there’s a whole new world

That’s a lot more kind.

 

Thank You Lord for our son and our daughter.

Thank You for placing in my heart the desire to be the best mom I could possibly be.

Thank You for protecting their young minds from the ravages of the world that is allowed into the home via the TV.

Thank You God that You are a good, good, Father.

 

GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS YOU!