Yes, the all powerful, ever present, "why?".
Why on earth do so many people in the world sit around watching television all day?
I watched a movie called August Rush. In this movie, a boy has such incredible musical gifts, and he goes out and shares it with the world. At the same time, his parents decide to take action and do something drastic, and go in search of each other (having been separated after the night of August's conception). All in all, a very inspiring and musical film, fabulous all around.
Also today, I watched several episodes of the British sci-fi series "Doctor Who". In it, an alien being called the Doctor travels around with his companions, helping people and fixing problems in time and space. Every single episode details how he uses his brilliant intellect, as well as a fairly large amount of luck to help people, no matter who they are or what they are.
Both of these things detail brilliant events, people going above and beyond and doing fantastic things. I think this is exactly why we watch television so much. It gives us an escape. We see things that are astounding and think "wow, I could NEVER do that". The problem is, we CAN. We can indeed do all of that. We can do anything we want to (okay, so flying through time and space is a bit far-fetched of an ambition, but it's the PRINCIPLE of the thing).
Why on earth do we spend so much time watching and marveling and what other, imaginary people can do and not going out and doing something daring ourselves?
I planned to spend this past week practicing music for my SEIBA Honor Band auditions next weekend. I instead spent it watching and marveling at someone else's musical achievements.
Is this what we do to ourselves? We live out our dreams and fantasies through proxies, while sitting slumped on our couches? Is this the life we really want to live?
I understand fully, however. It's so much easier to watch it all happen and not have to do the work for ourselves. Who wants to work for months, even years to develop an ability when they can watch a movie about it and experience the whole process in two hours?
I challenge anyone who happens to come across this blog to try to go an entire week without watching a single movie, television show, anything. Spend your time instead developing a talent, bettering yourself, growing better at something. Experience life for yourself instead of living out your days watching other people do it for you. This is my aspiration for the next week: to have spent significant time on my talents and to slowly pull of the leech that technology has on me.
It really is draining.
Good luck to you, as well as to me :)
Have a fantastic day, all of you.
-Cody
