Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Noble Experiment Ends

And so the noble experiment ends. For nearly two months I lived with no television. All there was to keep me entertained during my off hours was music, books and my computer.

All was going well  at first. I awoke to music and very little news, after all, radio is a poor distributor of anything important on the news front for the most part. The music was soothing to me and helped get the day off to a good start.

Books were also no problem. As an avid reader, I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my favorite authors and trying to discover new ones. My taste in the written word is as eclectic as are my musical tastes, so finding subjects of interest were easy.

The gamut from Stephen King to Kurt Vonnegut, from Eric Van Lustbader to Stephen Hawking was run. Each of the books, close to 50 in all, were read with intense pleasure.

When I sat before the computer at home, putting my own thoughts down, it was no problem. I have always enjoyed writing and creating with the written word. Those who write will understand what is meant when I say writing is like giving birth without the mess and physical pain. It is a pleasure to bring a new character to life and have situations emerge unexpectedly from what was expected.

No, friends, the problem was of a different nature altogether. While I normally have no trouble being alone (I am good company to myself), I couldn't turn off the mind.

No matter what I did or tried, I just couldn't find the off button and turn off the thought process. Now, there could be some who say there's little between my ears to be turned off and the process had to be a simple one, but the point is it was never ending.

I thought it would be simple to wander in and out of the mind (pun not intended). I foolishly believed I could control the gray matter, keep it harnessed, so to speak, and turn it on and off at will. Man, was I ever wrong.

Once the machine got started, there was no telling where it would go. It was like trying to control a renegade stallion. All I could do was hang on and try not to get thrown. At no point in time did I ever have any idea where it was going, and it went to some places I'd rather not have visited.

It could be compared to the Frankenstein monster (remember Frankenstein was the doctor, the monster was never named), once life was breathed into it, it was Katy bar the door.

I know I said I wanted my mind back and was tired of the brainless prattle on the other form of media. Now, I remember why I had the idiot box in the first place. My mind is a terribly noisy place to try and live. The noise was like trying to sleep in the midst of a 24-hour-a-day rock concert  in a word, impossible.

Because of this, the experiment failed and I have had to bring the other monster back to life. So I am now publicly eating the crow I have cooked so well and am getting cable hooked back up, though reluctantly.

Still, I will listen to music, read and write. These things I must do to live, but in order to shut the mind up, there will be television. Perhaps then I will be able to sleep normally again.

Remember friends and neighbors, the mind is a noisy place to live.