Blow up your TV
Throw away your paper
Go to the country
Build you a home
Plant a little garden
Eat a lot of peaches
Try an' find Jesus on your own

--

The above are lyrics from John Prine’s Spanish Pipedream, a song that urges you to get out there and Iive, baby.

Most people don’t.

Instead, they spend much of their lives immersed in vicarious distractions.

The king of these distractions is the boob tube (although you could easily make a case for cell phones).

I can go months without watching television, and in fact have had periods of many years without a cable subscription.

But lately I’ve been watching TV.

Why?

Because I’ve been sidelined by a respiratory condition that’s made me lethargic beyond belief. And while I know reading’s a better way to pass the time, TV takes a lot less energy.

So, I’ve been watching reruns of the old sitcom Cheers and episodes of American Greed.

While I find these shows hilarious (Cheers) and fascinating (American Greed), the inane commercials that pollute them remind me of why I’d forsaken watching the idiot box in the first place.

A clip from Pawn Stars, one of the few “reality” shows I find worth watching

For example, in just one episode of American Greed, I was subjected to commercials for over a dozen products and services, including:

· Outback Steakhouse (oy, oy, oy!)

· Loreal Face Cream (so you can look young no matter how crinkly you are)

· Audi (zoom, zoom!)

· Lazy Boy furniture (to help you finish your “to don’t” list)

· Flex Seal (seals everything!)

· Marshall’s (gotta look good, right?)

· And Jardiance (a drug for chronic kidney disease that includes kidney problems as a possible side effect)

The Jardiance ad was one of several drug spots that included Xdemon for mites, Amyloid for dementia, and Skyrizi for psoriasis.

As bad as all these commercials are, sometimes they’re better than the shows themselves.

Why anyone would sit through so-called reality TV (totally scripted)…

Today’s sitcoms (laugh-track specials)…

Or nightly propaganda (disguised as news programs)…

… is beyond me.

Fortunately, I’m feeling better and am no longer in need of occupying my brain indoors instead of enjoying the great outdoors.

And on that note, I’m off for a hike.

Fed up with TV,

Doug Fogel, Publisher, Natural Wealth, Natural Health