Television and Malibu
© Photo taken at Point Mugu by Pastor John, all rights reserved
Today there was a article in the Los Angeles times titled “The dark side of watching too much TV” and it says in the second paragraph “Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School looked at the media habits of 4,142 healthy adolescents and calculated that each additional hour of TV watched per day boosted the odds of becoming depressed by 8%.”
I have always suspected the above result, and thus when my daughters were at home television watching was limited to the weekends (most of the time) and they have both gone onto to be highly successful, intelligent young women (Scientist and a Lawyer). Two years and a half years ago (when I began living on my own) I made the conscious decision to not have television in the house. I realized that, being lonely, I could become addicted to television and end up feeling sorry for myself and/or depressed.
What has resulted from banning the television from my house has been the reality that I get out a lot a more! For example, during a recent trip to Malibu, I took the above picture at Point Mugu near sunset and because the Santa Ana winds were blowing you can see the spray fly up and back – it was a glorious time! Now imagine if instead of going to Point Mugu I had wasted my time watching some inane television program that would have likely left me feeling depressed. Instead I chose to be out in God’s good Creation and I left the beach full of praise and thankfulness and happy to be alive!
I doubt any one of us will lie on our death bed and wished we had watched more television. In fact, during the times I have visited hospices I have noted that the “patients” (those who were going to die) rarely if ever watched the television. The only people I did see watching television was the visiting family and friends – what irony.
So get out there, enjoy life, build bonds of relationship with your friends, family, and fellow believers – it is a great day to be alive!
Peace,
Pastor John
