My Ever Shrinking World

About a month ago, we terminated our TV service and sent back all the devices that made it work. The decision was driven mainly by a need to cut the budget, but also the need to reduce stress. And boy, has it ever!

With my penchant for straddling two or more centuries at at time as I write, I often consider what someone's worldview would have been in byegone days. It doesn't even have to be that long ago. When I was born, television was just beginning, and a little too pricey for many families. One car was sufficient for a household. Radio and newspapers spread the news.

How about one hundred years before that, 1850? It could take awhile for word to spread about politics, natural disasters, far away family. There was no expectation of up-to-the-minute communication, especially among those who lived away from the cities.

How long did it take for you to find out about the DOMA decision on Wednesday? I was driving at 10AM, and listening to NPR. I heard it within a few minutes, just like untold numbers of others who were anxiously waiting. How long would it have taken for a SCOTUS decision to reach saturation in 1950? 1850? How many people would have been well enough informed to be on tenterhooks the day it was handed down?

Even without television, I have no trouble following whatever news I would like to learn about. I have the internet, I see posts on facebook, I hear it on the radio. But I feel like my world is smaller now, because I have to make more effort to seek it out. And I like that.

Jill and I made the decision to go cold turkey from our coterie of Rachel Maddow, Melissa Harris-Perry, Laurence O'Donnell, et al. There were a few rough days in the beginning. I also found myself haunting the local news websites, looking for weather updates more frequently. But as time goes on, I miss it less and less. All right, I can't get all the answers on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me". But my Saturdays tend to be spent with live people now. Jill and I sit and talk over the dinner table. We listen to music. We share what we're doing in our creative endeavors. Yes, I still spend too much time on facebook --- I'm not espousing a tech-free world. But the stress level in our house has diminished as strident media voices have been silenced.

And really, what are we missing? I get wound up about one thing or another, but what am I going to do about it? If I show up at Moral Monday Protests, sign some petitions, pass along reasonable articles, write to my reps and publish the occasional letter to the editor, isn't that what I can do? I can't vote every day, but you can be sure I'll be at the polls when the time comes ---- I always have been. In between, do I need to spend every day in a state of outrage and frustration? Or would it be more productive for me to love the people I'm with, share myself at heart level within my own sphere? I think, based on no scientific research whatsoever, that living love to the best of my capability, listening and speaking carefully, laughing frequently and heartily, and holding a sense of wonder and gratitude, are the best agents of change I can muster.

So my world has shrunk down to human size, and I'm glad about that. I can smile at the Food Lion cashier, hug the other residents at my mother's Alzheimers unit, and treat myself and the people around me with kindness. Human size is about all I want to deal with. That and blueberries, anyway.