Something TV Is Good For

First of all, a huge thanks to Bryan Allain (last name pronounced uh-lane) whom I've known for a while now but apparently have been mispronouncing his last name. He did a great job reviewing blogs for our writing workshop last night, braving the black ice and spinning vehicles to join us.

Now on to a major revelation I had last night regarding something that television is good for . . .

I got home around 9:30pm from class last night. We were going to drive to Rochester, NY, so the van was packed and ready to go - all I needed was to swing by my parent's house and pick up my family and a few things I had forgotten. But when I got to the house, all was quiet.

Hmmm, I thought. Where'd everybody go? I grabbed one last suitcase, an extra coat and finished loading the van. Came back inside. Still, no one. But I thought I heard voices upstairs, so I followed them. This is when I discovered.

There might be one thing TV is good for.

My mom and dad and sister and three of my kids were all crammed into the loft watching the Olympics, and they were having a good time. Through the window I could see all the snow, and in the loft everyone was covered with blankets and snacking and having fun.

In that split second I realized, since we stopped watching TV we have probably missed out on some fun evenings interacting with my family.

This of course has thrown my entire world view for a tailspin.

What do you think? Is forsaking television for this amount of time going to ruin all of our relationships, turn us into hermits? Or do we just need to break more televisions in order to get quality time with people?

**I completely understand that some of you have had trouble posting comments on blogspot, something which is annoying me to no end (blogspot, not you). I am looking into transferring this blog over to wordpress, but in the mean time, you can still comment on here with a google account or feel free to comment on my facebook page when I post about this blog.