While Not Watching TV, I found St. James and Thoreau

   So what is this exercise of not watching TV really all about?  I forbid myself from watching TV, write a blog about it which very few people read, and then what? Self-imposed deprivation of some of our culture's most creative and clever writing...for what?
   I was pondering these questions and considering the option of stopping this blog and looking for something else to write about -- in the end it is a fetish with written words that keeps me blogging -- when I came accross a wonderful book: Simplify Your Life, by Elaine St. James. As happens with most books I pick up randomly at the bookstore, I was drawn to the size (not too big), cover design (simple, with a lot of white space), and last, a bargain-price sticker.   
   The second step is opening it to a random page, which turned out to be a chapter about rethinking meals with friends, and opting to have them out in a restaurant, instead of going through the required, time-consuming preparations of cooking at home. My thinking exactly! (I love it when a published author and I are on the same page.) Goes without saying that having friends over for dinner is always an option, when you're up for it. The point is that if the prospect of having to plan and prepare a home cooked meal will delay and ultimately prevent  you from getting together with friends you really enjoy spending time with, then it's time to rethink the meal part of the get together.
    I took the book home with me and kept finding more messages, beginning with this on the front jacket: "'Simplify, simplify.' That's what Henry David Thoreau urged his fellow Americans to do a hundred and fifty years ago."
    I was a big fan of Thoreau back in my high school days when our English teacher introduced us to him, and here is this 21st century author bringing him back to me in 100 different ways to simplify my modern life. Bonus: None of them require me to go without electricity or hot water or, thankfully, build a cabin in the woods with my own two hands.
    Guess what I found today as I kept perusing randomly through my book? Chapter 25: Turn Off the TV. In seven short paragraphs, St. James goes over all the reasons I decided to take a hiatus, from mindlessness drama to manipulative ads, even as I sometimes miss the good stuff that TV does have. The last paragraph: "If you're addicted to television, kicking the habit will certainly simplify your life. People who've done it say it's one of the best things they've ever done."
    It got me all excited again about this personal exercise. I got Thoreau back in my life, which is to say, I got some insight into why I'm doing this TV-less exercise: Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
    The house is quiet and dark except for my desk lamp. I hear the hum of the AC, and my daughter already sleeps for her 5:30 a.m. schoolday wake-up. I am but a speck, but I fill the space. What a good feeling to go to bed with.