we're lost.

we are totally addicted to the television show "lost"...and we don't even own a television. we found that this show is available to view online so we've been watching it for many weeks now. we're already up to watching season 3. as people who have ethical dilemmas with television viewing, we're feeling pretty pathetic about our interest. our commitment to watching it surpasses our need for sleep some nights as we stay up past midnight to watch "just one more". having spent many a year as a social worker around addicts, i should know better. we have all the symptoms and should probably be reading "the big book" at this point.

Wendelll Berry had this to say about the TV ownership:

"My own idea of an ideal negative action is to get rid of your TV set. It is cheating to get rid of it by selling it or giving it away. You should get rid of it by carefully disassembling it with a heavy, blunt instrument. Would you try to get rid os any other brain disease by selling it or giving it away?"

My own positive thoughts about not having an actual television set have recently been challenged b/c of the amount of television show viewing that we are doing. Yeah, we do get to skip commercials. And, yeah, it's just one series (although we have watched grey's anatomy, as well!). I could spend some time justifying other reasons why it's not as bad as owning an actual television...but we should all start to worry when we begin to "rationalize and justify" any thing. Another lesson from Bill W.

We are still exposed to the same portrayal of images whether they are seen on a tv set or a computer monitor. With "lost", we are seeing repeated images of violence, violence with weapons and physical violence between people and other animals, including animal cruelty. There is lots of blood and gore. There is also lying, cheating, stealing, crime, sexism, racism, infidelity, kidnapping, meat consumption, murder, drug use and various forms of manipulation. Not to mention the things it fails to show...such as a newborn who is never shown breastfeeding. (And, why doesn't anyone have a sunburn or lighter hair? How do ther bodies and clothes stay so clean when they are living outside?) Gosh, that list makes it sound pretty rough. why the hell are we spending hours with it. like i said, we're addicted.

we've gotten totally sucked into the plot of the show...they mystery. we're intrigued and curious. even though we know better. we could simply stop watching it. but then we'll never know what happens! we gotta know.