Depressed? Turn off the TV

Hi neighbors. Is it spring yet? I'm ready to hibernate! Although the cold rain wasn't pleasant, it is surely welcomed compared to so much of the country's drought.

If global warming is inevitable, this is only the beginning of a very hot and dry decade.

The weather channel used to be a ‘safe' station to watch. Sure there were some hurricanes now and then, an earthquake or ten and once and a while a threatened volcanic eruption. But things were ‘normal' in that you could tell it would pass. It was, after all, just weather.

Now the weather channel is as depressing as the news. I would just skip over to the animal network, but there are too many shows about habitat depletion and species extinction.

I think I'm going to stop watching the news again as well. All the news is about people killing someone or stealing from each other or threatening war against their neighbors.

Prime time fodder is no better. Most of the shows are about criminals, murderers, detectives, crime scene investigators or lawyers and trials. Other shows are about doctors and rare diseases, emerging new plagues, or dysfunctional health care plans.

Today's fantasy shows are not musicals, but space operas. In the past these shows were about aliens coming to save us from ourselves. Now they are about aliens bent on killing us all off.

The history shows are pretty safe to watch. But they too can get a bit depressing when you realize that all the mistakes mankind made 6,000 years ago we are still making today.

Of course, there is always Wheel of Fortune! After that half hour, you might as well turn off the television and read a book.

If you find your attention span is of less than 15 minutes duration, you could check your emails. Of course, you have to weed out all the spam first which might take an hour or longer.

You could listen to music. You could clean house. You could go visit friends and relatives. There are lots of things to do that are more fun (and lots less depressing) than watching television.

If you feel a compulsion to sit in front of the ‘box' you could go rent a movie to watch instead of the usual evening fare.

Let's see. There are a few popular movies just recently out. There's one about criminals. One about world wide weather disasters. How about the one about war with other planets? Oh, there's one out about the undead. Don't forget the one about the crazy psycho who plays fatal games with people.

Hum. This list is starting to sound familiar.

How about a movie where no one shoots anyone â€" or anything? Could we see one where children live in a modest but safe and loving home? Maybe they could have a dog or a cat. Maybe they don't have any ghosts. Perhaps their neighbors aren't mass murderers.

What if their uncle the doctor turned lawyer then detective, wasn't really a vampire? Maybe their kindergarten teacher isn't really a cyborg. No one in the family has alien DNA. Their happy home isn't near avalanche country, has no flood plain nearby and has never had the local mountain spew lava and smoke into the air.

Wow! If they have a wooded backyard, let's say there is no killer, mutant bear living there. What if the vegetable garden doesn't grow killer tomatoes? What would we think if they walked to school every day, attended school, and walked back home -- and nothing terrible happened? What if Mom cooked supper most nights? What if Dad had a steady job and worked five days a week? What if big brother didn't join a gang and little sister didn't get hooked on drugs? How would you react if your seven year old son told you Davy Crockett was his hero? What if your eight year old daughter preferred a dolly that looked like a baby instead of a fashion model? What would you do if your children wanted to play cards, checkers or do a puzzle together as a family instead of sitting in isolation playing a video game? How would your children react if you told them they didn't have to schedule two hour's worth of after school activities Monday through Friday? If the grandparents called and asked you to bring the kids over for a visit, how long would it take to change everyone's "to do" lists to schedule them in?

Until the next time friends remember it is sometimes better to snuggle up on the couch under a blanket with the grandchildren, the dog and a good book, than to worry about what's on television.