A TV that just turns right off is no fun. When I was a kid, you turned a TV off, the picture shrank to a rectangle, then a bright point that lingered for a while. Maybe it made a crackling, static noise too, or was that just our TV? And maybe the screen was covered with static electricity, so more crackle if you touched it.
If it rained alot and you couldn’t go play outside and you’d already drawn every monster and dragster you could think of and got bored, you could amuse yourself for a time turning the TV on, then off again, and then back on just before that point of light disappeared for good. How long could you make that point of light last before it went black?
Now, you turn the TV off, it just turns off.
The human soul, I think, is like the old TV sets. Before you die it shrinks to a small, glowing point of light that grows weaker then vanishes. This process may take minutes or hours in some people, decades in others.
Another thing I’m thinking: if I sometimes act as if I consider myself the center of the universe, it’s because I am. Anyone that pisses off is overlooking the fact that they are also the center of the universe; that the universe has as many centers as it has points of consciousness.
That’s our job, being the center of the universe. God stands there at the side of a gravel road on a balmy summer evening, watching all these glowing dots hovering in the bushes like fireflies. Maybe he puts several into a jar with holes in the lid and uses it for a flashlight, shaking the jar now and then to make the dots glow harder. Maybe he squishes one and draws a glowing heart on his arm, just for the hell of it. But mostly, I think, he just watches.
empty spaces and points of light.
when you hit the ‘off’ switch for our tv, the sound goes off but the picture stays. to really kill it, you have to unplug it. otherwise, it works fine. at first, I found its refusal to shut down spooky, but I’ve grown accustomed to its tenacity and often feel guilty when I pull the plug.
where I grew up, we didn’t have fireflies and I wondered what all the fuss was about. now, our neighborhood is magic with them. we were using ordinary leftover plastic containers to catch them but I was driven to tears with the many accidental deaths as they got jammed in the lids and banned their use. only official Insect Catching Jars are permitted.
mig, did I ever tell you that sometimes your blog entries are totally brilliant? I stand in awe before this one.
By the way, did you happen to come across the website http://www.tv-be-gone.com/ recently, or is this just a freaky case of synchronicity for me?
No, I’m new to that site. Thanks for the link, Horst. I like the intro.
My brother used to have a digital wristwatch that was actually a secret universal remote-control device, and he used to go into bars and switch channels on the TVs. It became a game with him to find increasingly tougher bars to do this in – sports bars during playoffs, biker bars. May he rest in peace.
Actually, he’s still alive. In fact, his birthday is next week. I’ll surprise him and send him a card.
why is it that one may only wish for the dead to rest in peace? I’d like to rest in peace, too.
You ever think about the fact that it might be possible that they will be able to prevent death before our kids die of old age? That they might possibly be able to live hundreds of years? Unlikely but possible.
And wouldn’t that piss you off to know that of all the years to be born we were born just 50-100 years to soon?
Or worst of all, what if they prevent deaths from old age when we are like 90 years old and we have to be 90 years old for hundreds of years while younger people get to be 20 something for hundreds of years. And in that case, do you think they would lose respect for their elders after awhile?
mig you are my blog hero!xxxxxxxxxxx