It is 5:46 AM on chilly Wednesday morning. I’m still not back to normal due to a nasty cold: I’ve got a consistent headache, my thoughts are negative and I’m having a hard time getting motivated to do anything. This cold has lasted almost two weeks but it looks like I’m on the mend which is good because I really need to get back to the gym.
The first topic is a heavy one and that is death. Death seems to stay quiet for a while then strike all at once. These past few weeks has seen the family dog Lucy pass away from brain cancer, the wood shop teacher at the local high school Mr. Guerrero die from a heart attack and an old family friend’s father go after a long struggle. Once again time gives us a hard reminder that it continues to move and things will continually change.
When death hits we all take a minute to reflect on what is really important in life: we call family members on the phone, try to make some more time for friends, re-evaluate our priorities. And from my experience all of this lasts no longer than two weeks before we resume our normal routines: we worry about the trivial, catching the right show is more important than making dates with friends, we spend too much time thinking about what the neighbors do or do not have and so on.
As for me I seem to have found myself on the opposite end of the spectrum. I cannot stop thinking about the deep questions. Instead of watching a TV program I would much rather prefer watching the sunset as well as my fish swimming in their tank. I like to look up at the moon through my telescope or look at different stars through my Starwalk app. I’ve reached a level of curiosity about the world that is typically only found in children before they become teenagers and suddenly know everything. And I’ve found that this “knowing everything” is something most adults share with teenagers but unlike the teens often keep to themselves.
As I sit here looking at my fireplace on the TV and listening to the birds chirp through my Bose speaker I’m thinking about how odd this might be to most people. I really like a great ambiance. And I think that since I do not have a real fireplace then one on the TV does well for a chilly morning when combined with the furnace. I also have my bird feeder and bird bath outside but since their songs are not loud enough to penetrate a closed window I thought a soundtrack would be a nice morning touch. Does this make me strange?
But it does not matter to me how many people would answer in the affirmative. I find it strange that people want to turn on the news in the morning so they can hear someone read to them as though they’ve lost their eyesight. I can read the news in five minutes on my phone and if a story interests me can spend longer on any particular story. The news is consistently full of negative events, traffic and weather. I don’t want to hear negativity every morning, I can see the weather by looking out the window, and should I need to travel Google Maps or Waze will give me more relevant traffic updates.
I think the reason that people watch the news in the morning is simply that they’ve been conditioned to enjoy it. They’ve had the news turned on in the mornings for most of their lives and are just conditioned to accept it as it brings them comfort. Kind of like Christianity!
So, no, I don’t need someone to read me the morning news, even if they are very attractive females, which seems to be the way things are going. I”d rather have my fake fireplace and listen to the birds on the Bose.
And now, I even have Kai who has woken up and is sitting next to me in the recliner. I really enjoyed when he was younger and would fall back asleep. Now that he is older he is just about to ask me for his phone so he can play Minecraft. He has become quite the expert at this game and I find it much more stimulating than just watching cartoons. In Minecraft you have to think, you have to design, and you have to plan. Kai actually made a Ghostbusters house in Minecraft which left me absolutely amazed that he could take what he saw on TV and build it in his game. He is much smarter than I was at the same age I think.
Ok, time for a coffee refill and as soon as I move I know Kai will ask me for his phone.
