A Simple Life

This evening, I was entertained by a little movie called Cinderella Man. For those of you not familiar or aren't too interested, it's a boxing story that takes place during The Depression. Parts were depressing for obvious reasons, but it also reminded me of a simpler time as far as style of living/way of life goes. I think the biggest thing that struck me tonight was the use of the radio. Radios were probably just as common back then as TV's are today, if not more. The radio provided endless hours of entertainment and news for families. The only time you ever watched anything was if you took a trip to the cinema. For a while now, I've known that I spend too many hours rotting my brain in front of the TV, just watching crap that takes my mind off of stress or worries or just plain boredom. While I was in Ireland, I spent a little more than a month without TV of any sort (excluding one night in a pub). It was refreshing in a way. The radio was on constantly in the house, whether is was the national Irish news station or CD's or records. I'm not saying that I always liked what I was listening to, but it was a nice break to give my mind some actual exercise. We would wake up, listen to the news while having breakfast, come in for tea around noon and hear the bonging of the clock to announce the hour, more news, some talk, and some music for lunch in the afternoon, and then all sorts of music in the evenings. After making dinner, eating, and cleaning up, we all (me, my brother, the Italian, the farmer and his wife) would take seats around the table and near the fire (see above) and read, play cards and board games, write letters, or study. I was rarely bored and I felt a lot better about the way that I was spending my time. While I was away, I compiled a list of things that I was going to try to do and change in my life in the upcoming year. So far, I have accomplished one of the biggest, which is taking a trip to India, but more on that later. I have a couple of other items on the list as well, such as watch less TV and listen to more radio. I know that this is going to be a difficult one for me to follow through with, but I would really like to make an effort towards it. While I make excuses for not doing it now (I'm not set up in my own place yet), I really need to start once I am settled into my new place. I think the first step I will take in doing so is to not subscribe to cable television. #1 - it will save me money, and #2 - it will discourage me from watching too much. I'll let you know how it goes. And with that, now back to Sid and Nancy.