Pent up musing

This musing has been pent up for a while now, actually predating my temporary quarantine under chicken pox, though to be sure the experience only heightened some of the impressions.

Once upon a time, before we had kids, when my wife and I were living in an apartment in Woodbridge and I was working for an almost busted dot com, we were in some tight times financially. We couldn’t afford cable – the $40 a month it would cost to get comcast (let alone a cable modem) would have completely broken us. It’s a wonder that we managed to get out of that and into a house (such as it is), but I digress.

Thing is, that was one of the most fulfilling times lifestyle wise. I felt like we were better in touch, with the world and with each other, when we didn’t have the option to veg on the couch or toss something on the tv. We read a bit more, spent more time learning things (that’s when I first delved into the world of linux, chiefly because I needed some kind of proxying situation for our dialup situation). We listed to music a lot more (it was almost all we had), and the only tv we could watch was a few main channels and pbs (and in woodbridge, our pbs included Dr. Who, Red Dwarf, Red Green, and a bunch of other imports). But tv wasn’t such a big deal – there wasn’t that much that the rabit ears could grant us after all.

Since then, I’ve toyed with the idea of getting back to that. I miss the quieter home life, the constant beat of music instead of the drone of the tv, the focussing on doing and learning rather than watching and absorbing. I acknowledge that it would be more than difficult to do that right now – the tv is a sick, addictive mainstay in the kids life. It does serve a positive influence – it helps teach them, it introduces them to things we couldn’t, it does serve a positive role. But it is also an easy out, an easy way to divert them when we time to focus on the mundane, like dishes and cleaning.

Maybe when the kids are a little bit older and self sustaining as far as entertainment, we can look at at least cutting it down considerably. I’m yearning for a lifestyle that lets me explore on my own recountenances rather than being spoon fed. I guess at heart I’m looking for the wonder that I stared at the world with in my much younger years. But right this moment, I’m watching and listening to my 2 little girls, as they need the attention I can’t give them on this keyboard. I’ll be back on this later.