the magic curtain

I think it would be safe to say that in most matters of living, I am an all or nothing kind of gal. I do find myself walking middle of the road on several streets in life...but if something calls out to my heart...I jump in without hesitation and I usually require that ALL of me comes along for the ride. If/when I feel passionately about something, I become passionate about it and I kind of lose the big picture. Urgency is alive and I usually carry myself to learn more or do more or live more of whatever it is that has become embedded in my life story at the moment. I tend to want to get things moving in the direction of my callings...in a leaping sort of way...sometimes steps don't seem sufficient. Granted, I know how to straddle the fence and be uncertain about a LOT in this world...but when I do reach certainty...I want to go with it, even if it means changing my mind further down the road. I am human after all and am constantly learning and evolving my perspective, yes?

So...there is this situation in our home. The TV. I don't hate it. I don't love it. But, I DO have some opinions about how it effects our lives...and admittedly, sometimes I do hate it. I have been known to sponsor my own TV Turnoff Weeks out of the blue because I feel like it is what our brains need. If it were entirely up to me...I wouldn't have one. I didn't grow up with a TV. We had one in our home, but the only time I ever remember watching it as a young child was twice. Once to watch a rented "Thriller" and the other time "Grease". The VCR was rented too. In Junior High, it became a known fact that we could pick up a couple of channels without cable or bunny ears. So then, I got to watch some Full House and Family Matters and other "quality" shows like that. ;)

When I moved to college, it was the first time ever that I lived in a house with cable...and even then I was too busy to watch much. When I moved to Oregon for a semester, I didn't even have a TV in my apartment and I think that was a very good thing for me. I kind of felt like I lived in a cave, but that was sort of what I needed at the time.

Sometimes I dream of breaking the glass in our TV and using the rest of it to frame some art or to pot some flowers or something funky like that. Although I set fairly strong boundaries and limit the variety to that of PBS(which is one reason why I love the fact that we don't have cable)...I still feel like it is too easy for me to let limits come and go with one more show slipping by...and for us, that just isn't what feels "right". It kind of sucks out the potential for good times. I don't really like having it in our "living" space either...and since our home is one of the "wee" variety...that is kind of hard to avoid. So...there it sits...and stares at us and beckons certain sensory hungry individuals to want want WANT it. And, more often than I would like...it gets turned on just because it is there. So...I came up with a solution. Since I am not the only one living here...and since some of us don't like the idea of putting it away in the garage...I decided to create a compromise and cover it up. I sewed up a little curtain for our TV last night and am putting all my faith in believing that it will help me with the temptation of relying on it for some (much longed for) mellow time during the day (which, of course, ultimately just causes more stimulation in our world). And, I am really hoping that the phrase "out of sight, out of mind" holds true for this particular situation...because how much nicer would it be to not even have to worry about setting limits because no one ever even ASKS to watch it?

We'll see if this curtain can work it's magic.