The First Day

The last time I watched was yesterday.

I packed up my TV, VCR, and PS2 and placed in storage. I hid all my games and movies. I drove to my mother’s house for dinner. The television was on, but the sound was off. Have you ever realized that even when their is no sound, the television makes a whiny protest of noise, continiously dowloading bandwith into your home. The internal tuner forever trying to place an image on the screen creates a low frequency shriek. Sometimes, you can even hear the squeal when it is turned off. I kept trying to steal glances at the images of men in tight uniforms throwing a leather ball to other men. Programmed teamwork.

After dinner, my brother put on a movie. I decided this was to be my final movie before I started my 30 day resistance. I felt guilty at first, but the further along the movie played, the further I was enthralled, hypnotized, and trapped in the bizarre, subliminal impressions speaking to me.

It is morning. I wake with a sense of urgency. Today feels new. For the first time in a very long time, I am excited to get up, to see what happens. I ate breakfast and cleaned myself. Work is where I will encounter my first problem. My coworkers listen to the radio. They do not like local radio stations. They prefer the consumer driven behemoth of Simmons or ClearChannel. Blasted noise devices. My boss also has his TV on all day. The garble of news anchors and spin masters below audible understanding. Fox and Murdoch wanting to be heard. America’s marketing dreams offered us, one sound bite and commercial at a time. I have a gut feeling that if we didn’t watch TV or listen to the radio, we would have some semblance of control over our lives.

School is tonight. I am sure we will be watching a movie about some poet. Maybe Ill bring a book and try to read by what little light our classroom will have. My teacher may understand my predicament, I will ask.