One morning a week or so ago the TV blew up. It had been behaving erratically and then one morning in the middle of Sponge Bob, it gave up its ghost with a puff of smoke. The children were devastated. What will we do now? What will we do? There is nothing to do! Dad came and tried to set up the computer with a DVD but the computer crashed and when rebooted would not see the DVD device. Hmm. He spent 4 hrs. So the kids could watch TV. But the curse was too strong.
The TV still sits mute. But we have eaten meals at the table more often in the last week than in the last three months, we have played card games and board games. We rode bikes and took walks. We just talked.
In the interim my husband and I talked alot about cable and what we really want and use, and found that we want little and end up paying for a big package of stuff that we don't want. There is no way to say no thank you I don't want that. And no matter what fancy promotion/rewards/premium offer you sign up for after fees and the promotional period ends the cost is obscene. Similar to the obscene disproportion of space that breakfast cereal and soda take up in a grocery store.
I find myself again in that place of does any one else notice how insane this is?
If Keeping up with the Kardashians is your thing, well .. never mind. But ever the National Geographic Programming has fallen into the hyper dramatized, digitally recreated mode. So little is authentic any more.
I watched Fame with K1 and shocked her with some breasts and the f word, because she has dreams of fame that are fed by Disney and I wanted her to see a little more reality of the struggle. What really impressed me how normal the characters in the film looked. Normal everyday buck-teethed people dressed in hand-me-downs with immigrant parents. Not these shiny perfect beings with clueless or absent rich parents that live on Planet Disney.
So maybe the next title will be in search of authenticity.
