Deal or No Deal?

One of the most common responses I've gotten when people hear about this experiment is, "Man, I couldn't do that, but good luck to you."

I can understand that response if I was planning a trip to the top of Mt. Everest, or preparing for a year eating only beans (good luck to my family if that was the case), or going a year without shoes. But this is tv folks.

It's not that big of a deal.

Perhaps now that I've done it for a few weeks I've seen the wizard for who he truly is - that little dude standing on a stool to make himself taller or speaking through a megaphone to make himself louder. Going without tv isn't scary, and, actually, it's not all that difficult. A television isn't a bully, just a talking box, sitting there in the corner waiting for us to turn it on and watch other people do fun and interesting things while we sit on a sofa and eat and think, "That's cool."

Not to say the blank screen doesn't occasionally watch me as I cross the room, or whisper things to me . . . "National Championship game is on tonight" . . . "Wouldn't it be nice to veg in front of Friends for a few hours" . . . "Entertainment, you need entertainment!" . . . But it doesn't take long for that voice to sound more and more nasally and conceited and, eventually, down right annoying. And since I still have the remote control I can turn the volume down.

Quick word association - what's the opposite of:

laughing . . . crying
love . . . fear
television . . . peace

Wow. That was insightful.

So a quick heads up. I think I'm going to try to encourage some sort of week without television and see how many of you guys will sign up for it. I don't know when exactly, but let me know if that sounds like an interesting experiment you might be willing to try out. Maybe if you live close, we'll have you over for dinner at the end of the week and share detox stories, or if there are too many people we'll all go somewhere. Or if there are no people then Maile and I will eat alone.

My goal in this is definitely not to try to persuade everyone in the world to give up tv - there are more worthwhile causes to fight for and, contrary to how this may all look, I'm not strictly anti-tv. So if you're not up for a week away from the idiot box, that's cool, too.

And you can still come to our dinner.

*** make sure you tune in on Saturday and Sunday this weekend - I will be in Florida (enough with all the groaning and sighing b/c it's 40 degrees and raining in West Palm Beach) so we will be having a special guest blogger. That's right, none other than my beautiful wife Maile. Have a great weekend!