Sunday, May 16, 2004
I like bonsai trees. Way to go Dan!
I watched that episode of American Idol with my family, and we sighed with capital understanding at each commercial break, experienced a funny sort of outrage at 'America's' decision to vote the best contestant off the show, and swore to ourselves that we would not watch it again.
But we knew we could complain only so much, for we were complicit in the game the show's executives try to pass off as reality tv. The whole country is complicit and the only way to complain really is to volunteer to be a part of the Neilsen rating system and always watch PBS.
I've found in the last little while here at home I've enjoyed tv less and less the more choices I've been given. We have to much too say and too much opportunity to say it when it comes to the trivial things in our lives. We get scared when we have to make real decisions because our everyday ones don't have any real consequences.
Maybe commercialism is an inevitable result of a healthy capitalist democracy and it's up to us to be smart enough to cut out the junk. I don't want to be an ascetic, but maybe I need to simplify my entertainment choices, stop caring so much.
I hear Bonsai trees can be fun.
"There's a blue bird at my window
I can't hear the song he sings.
All the jewels in heaven
They don't look the same to me.
I just wade the tides that turned
Till I learn to leave the past behind.
It's only lies that I'm living
It's only tears that I'm crying.
It's only you that I'm losing
Guess I'm doing fine."
