40 Days Without

My wife and I went 40 days without TV.  We gave up watching TV for Lent, the time between Ash Wednesday & Easter.  (It's not exactly 40 days but its close.)  I would like to tell you that it was miserable but that simply is not true.

We missed the reruns of our favorite crime shows, college kids playing in a basketball tournament, a golf tournament where the winner gets a jacket, some people singing and dancing while others critique them, and OKC Thunder basketball.  For some reason these shows seemed more important while I was watching them.  We were late on some national news such as the Travon Martin tragedy, a shooting on a college campus, and other disheartening information.  We were made aware of these things via Twitter & Facebook.

I knew what we would miss but did not expect what we would gain.  We had deeper conversations than we have ever had.  We got out of the house and exercised more.  We gained knowledge as we read more.  We gained rest as we slept more. We gained the ability to sit in awkward silence until it is no longer awkward.  

I am shocked at how much more we were able to accomplish and experience by simply not watching TV.  It's been 3 weeks since our TV fast and I think we have turned it on maybe 5 times, all for specific purposes.

Based on our positive experience, I would recommend that you begin to limit the amount of TV that you watch. The problem with TV is that it allows us to focus more on the realities and stories of fictional people that we don't take the time to develop our own reality and our own stories.  Or if you play video games, we spend more time fighting fake zombies and virtual terrorists than we do fighting against real life evil. 

Here are 2 recommendations to limit the amount of TV you watch.

1.  Fast an hour each day.  Determine that from 7-8 (or whatever time) that you will keep the TV off.
2.  Fast 1 day each week.  Decide that every Monday (or whatever day) that you will keep the TV off.

Try one or both of these and I think you'll be surprised with the results.