Vetting Avatars

He slipped off my lap with a worried look that told me he was afraid he was going to miss something.

“I have to go pee”, he said in his charming three and a half year old voice.

“I won’t keep reading” I reassured him as he eyed his four-year-old playmate still seated on the other half of my lap.

Raising his left hand palm upwards, with his right index finger he gently pushed the pads underneath his left fingers and said deliberately, “PAUSE” and dashed off to the potty.
Returning not more than forty seconds later, he stopped by the side of his chair, placed his two hands in the same position as before, and laughing, said ‘PLAY” reaching for my arms to lift him up after he gave the command to begin again.

My generation began with no TV and progressed to eleven channels. My kids, by the time they were teens, had ninety-nine channels. This generation already has a thousand plus.

I made a major decision when I moved into this house. I dropped television service. It saves me, with taxes and fees, about a hundred dollars a month.

I’m not a purist. I watch movies from the library and my own collection. I catch various topics of interest from TV channels I can get on my smart phone. I watched The Amazing Race on my computer and, well, ok…the rest of Harry’s Law episodes.

But gone is the blare and glare and offensive assault of the medium that was created to better hook people into advertising than radio could and as a byproduct has birthed an epidemic of ADHD and mass consumerism and a lot of violence giving us all the unhealthy eye movements that thwart our brains from behaving appropriately and make us intolerant of anything longer than a seven minute time span of interest.

A friend warned me the first few months would be rough. There was a kind of withdrawal. But I’ve found more and more people who are not using TV that is streamed by cable or dish and like it which means camaraderie. And I have grown to truly love my new relationship with time and things.

I am more present. I am more connected to my own self, my experience of being home. My perspective is unedited. The fear, guilt, and inadequacy that advertisers constantly feed into are gone. I have a new confidence. The result of all this has been delicious (without watching the Food Network). A full, rich engagement with the present is mine for the taking.

Fran Liebowitz once remarked something to the effect that today’s technology engendered a desire on everyone’s part to be anywhere but where they are. True dat as they say in the hood.

I have essentially given up vetting avatars. I’m content to miss some pop culture. For example, vetting, that oh so important term that rose to popularity during the last election and is now used for everything actually came from the fact that in horse races they sometimes have to call the vet to see if the horse can physically run the race….vetting. Life is a horse race for sure and pop culture makes it all the more impressive by elevating ‘in’ terms.

And Avatars? That’s a Hindu term for the incarnational process of their gods. It has come to be used for something larger than life and big blue creatures that save the forest. Not quite the proper use of the term.

Instead of examining gods of many arms up close and personal, whether they are on the book channel or the weather channel or HGTV who vets the avatar of color, I stand alone. Gone from my life are the racehorses and myths the business world needs me to buy.

‘Fessing up to reality, I still hit the remote when I’m in a position to do so outside of my house. Like recently I had a chance to be in front of a TV and ended up watching Suze Orman’s new Money Class on PBS. Feeling guilty, I was reminded of how pleasant my experience was as she expounded on the pleasures of moving away from a life of purchasing various commodities we’ve been told will improve our lives and instead focusing on our relationships and joy in our work.

I’m running my own race more deeply seated than ever in the faith that is Truth to me with fewer interruptions. Peace, patience, kindness, love, joy, gentleness, self-control are the revenue that gives me life. Now that’s a profit margin!!

Love,
Deborah