Bittersweet Television

We beg you to pardon the lack of posts on Selah's blog; we've been somewhat limited to our internet access, and digital camera while in our current moving transition....

The last three months we have been living in lower Puna, doing some worktrade on a large property. Living closer to work and school is going to mean massive savings for the family on gas prices, and a positive steps for the family in business.

We haven't had television (purposely) for approximately five years, though we did watch our share of movies. When we moved into the cabin, we found that we had cable television, and I admit, we totally enjoyed it. We caught up on the Discovery Channel and cartoons galore, were freaked out by how tv seems now to be all-reality, all-the-time, and watched a lot of cooking shows, drooling and wishful.

Since most of Selah's life has been television-free, her response to it was both surprising and scary. She was intent on listening to every word of every commercial, took everything very literal, and was profoundly affected. After a few days of tv access, she was pointing out brands in the local grocery store with passionate determination. "This is the QUICKER PICKER UPPER, this is the one that is QUILTED and it's a ONE-SHEETER!!!" The look on her face of utter seriousness was a fast, jolt of reality for us. This kid has fallen prey to propaganda, and it happened so easily, and so fast. Growing up with television, myself, I've been so desensitized by all of the quick flash edits, and numb to the advertising. But, Selah's naiive, beautifully innocent and unjaded soul makes quick work for any advertiser.

One early evening, Selah was checking out some cartoons, and a commercial interrupted her programming. I was in the other room, making a collage, and Selah stormed in, biting mad.

"I was just watching a show and a commercial came on, and it was about bendy glitter pens. They have allllllll these colors that you can buy: copper, gold, blue, green. There's glitter inside and they bend all around. And you can twist them together and mix the colors -- and then -- and then you know what they said?"

"What did they say next, honey?"

She sighed very angrily, hands on her hips. "They said at the end you have to be 18 to order. I don't like that! I can use those pens, and I'm only 7. I don't like that at all. "

While I found this interaction to be hilarious, she did not find any humor in it at all. She found this 18 year old rule to be unjust, and worth a fight. She actually suggested maybe I give "them" a call and tell them just how unfair she found this to be.

Television and life in general are very literal for Selah, right now. I'm happy to say we're without television access once again, as we've made the final transition to the permaculture homestead. I feel even better now about our decision so long ago to remove television programming from our lives. I am hopeful and curious to see how living without television for the rest of her childhood days will affect her, and us. When we don't have a television telling us what we need, creativity and imagination are limitless...