January 2, 2011

Yesterday was our first day without TV or internet. It was nice to sit down to dinner without the distraction. After dinner John took out his old Atari and we played everything from frogger to digdug to space invaders, we had the greatest time! I have a lot of friends that think we are crazy and ask why we are depriving ourselves. I don’t think of it that way. Besides the idea of saving as much money as we can, there is this desire to get ‘Back to the Basics’. So instead of no TV and no internet being a negative, it is a positive, it gives us a chance to learn new fun things, fill the space with more meaningful activity, more thoughtful activity. I believe that a lot of us (definitely including me) get caught up in this rush to do it all and we’ve got the ipads and the ipods and the clever phones and the instant internet and hundreds of channels of entertainment and meanwhile we are missing out on everything around us. There was a poem quoted in an old Mary Janes Farm Magazine that I read today:


“’Tis a gift to be simple,

‘tis a gift to be free,

‘Tis the gift to come down

where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves

in the place just right,

‘Twill be in the valley

of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain’d

To bow and to bend

We shant be asham’d

To turn, turn will be out delight,

Till by turning, turning

We come out right.”

-Be Well!