23 t.v.'s

I do not like t.v. I do have one, in my basement, that I do not even know how to turn on. I have watched it one time since we got cable last fall. The only reason we got cable was so the kids could watch pbs and Josh could watch football...with the new "digital" revolution we only see snow. Regardless of the cable, I think Josh watched football once and the girls are down there, maybe once a month to watch something...

Now don't get me wrong, we do watch t.v., usually on hulu or you tube or other various media options, but It is very nice to be in control of when you watch and to have much less advertising. I currently watch 3 shows: The Office, Modern Family and Glee.

I really like this in practice and in principle. There are so many people who are addicted to television. It is on all day long no matter what is on or if they are even in the room. It distracts us from each other so we are just focused on mindless something we most likely do not ever care about.

So tonight we headed to Brann's for dinner, fair prices and never a wait. We have not been there in, well, forever, and as we settled into our booth, I noticed every single booth has there own t.v. As we waited for our food, the girls watched Garfield. Sports channels were surrounding us and the current stock market numbers were scrolling by on a running laser screen. Abby tried to ask me a question and I could not hear her. When I talked to Josh, his eyes would always drift behind me. I was trying to focus on him, but it was impossible, there were two giant projected screens right behind him showing two different channels. (apparently TIger Woods had the worst game of his career today).

I looked around the room I was in, one room in at least 3 in the restaurant. I counted 23 televisions. All of them bigger than the next. This is not counting the t.v.'s that were in each booth. I took it all in at that moment. I could see about 15 families eating, 23 televisions, no one talking cause you could not hear each other and you were so distracted by the media.

I thought to myself, this is America. This is pitiful. How could anyone enjoy this experience? How can this restaurant afford the t.v's? There were easy over 100 in this place. Was my $10 Tilapia also paying a cable bill? If they only bought 1/2 the amount of t.v.'s for this establishment could they have lower prices? Could they have donated to a food bank? Bought some chickens for a family in Ghana?

So, I guess now I will protest Branns. It is really hard to be passionate. Pretty soon, I am not going to be able to do anything right. Pretty soon, I am going to have to look at the "plank" in my eye, before judging the "speck" in someone else's...Cause I know there is a LOT more I could give up, it is just way easier to focus on Brann's t.v.'s....