CBC vs TV

2004-01-14 - 11:36 p.m.

Tomorrow is when I will be buying a television. It will be a really, really small television, but the last time I lived on my own I had a really, really small television, and I didn't mind. I think I kinda liked it (though I could be romanticising a little bit), because I small television is more akin to an accessory in the realm of interior decorating, whereas a large television almost always has to be the centrepiece, and most televisions are kinda ugly.

What this all means (other than that I think about interior decorating far too much for somebody who owns about two pieces of furniture) is that today was the last day of a two-week period where I lived without any real technological contact with the outside world. I had no television, no phone, no internet in my apartment. So all I listened to was the CBC, Canada's nationally funded radio station.

I've enjoyed, in a perverse way, living like that. It's been kind of nice to get used to finding other things to do beyond watching television, though I don't think TV was all that huge a part of my life as it could have been. I'm hoping that once I do have my TV (and cable, gotta have cable), I'll keep it off most of the time.

I have to thank CBC for the last couple of weeks. It's always been my favourite radio station, and it's the one that keeps me company at work after the last evening person goes home, but listening to it during the day has been great. I've been exposed to so many ideas and thoughts and works of art that I wouldn't have been exposed to, and I think I've actually laughed more, and I know I've gotten teary-eyed more (particularly while listening to a true story about an artist who painted a picture and then sold it to a guy, without knowing that his customer was blind. The picture, of Jesus on the cross, had, on a whim of the artist's, thicker paint in some places, so that the crown of thorns was raised from the rest of the painting. The blind man, who had been blind since birth, had never owned a painting before, but was able to feel the crown of thorns, and the rest of the painting, so that he knew instantly what it was. It was such a sweet story, and wonderfully told, that I got the sniffles a little bit) , than if I'd been watching really good TV.

Also, so many times while listening, I've wanted to write an entry here, just because of the thought-provoking stories and investigations. When I end up getting the internet hooked up to my apartment, I think there'll be a whole lot more entries, just because I tend to write these when I'm touched by something, when I feel changed somehow, and I think that those are usually my best entries, too.

So, while I'll be glad to have a television, and to be able to watch my DVDs and Survivor, I'm going to make sure that CBC radio is a more substantial part of my life.

And now: to work!

Cheers,

The Magus

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