What would you do with an extra hour a day?

Since the US government required all of us to view television digitally I have gone without. This is not my way of protesting the government’s enforcing this new law. Nor is it because I am too cheep to buy a converter box. Even though I did not buy one, one was given to us by a friend.

We have not hooked it up.

Why?

For about 10 years I did not own a TV.  I had a monitor and a VCR but I did not watch piped in TV.

Instead I lived my life. I was busy all the time seeing friends, going to school, riding my bike, reading books, and writing music. Never once did I feel the need to mentally ingest commercials or sitcoms.

I lived like this for years, very happily.

Then due to a bout of stomach flu I started watching TV.

The next year I was taking care of selling my sail boat and putting my house boat in the water. As soon as the dust started to settle I started watching TV again.

When Jim moved on board with me he brought a large TV, VCR, DVD player and a whole library of disks. We got into the habit of watching the news in the morning and late at night. Along with a few animated shows this was all the TV we watched regularly.

Going back to life without TV has been hard for both of us but it is doable.

But this all brings the question of what would happen if more people gave up thier TVs? What if all the poor people in the US did not have their TVs to distract them?

Do you think people would settle for their exsistance if they saw it without the mind buffer that television brings? If they had to go into the streets and meet their neighbors and see the life around them do you think they would put up with their environment, their government or their quality of life?

I think not. I also think (again this is just my opinion) the US would be a lot more productive a country if we all just turned off the TV for one extra hour a day.

Not just the impoverished but the wealthy and everyone in between.

Imagine how much charity work would all of a sudden get done.

What would you do with an extra hour a day?

Read, paint, sing, fix up your house, put in an extra hour at work, bake cookies with your kids, bike ride, join a community garden, play ball with your kids or friends, clean your storage locker or garage out a little (donate the stuff you don’t want anymore), call a friend who you have not talked to in a while, go for a hike or walk, think???

There are endless things you can do with your life if you just turn off your TV for one extra hour a day.

Gosh you could even write a blog.