Brighten Your Day

When I was a boy we had a small 13 inch color television set in our living room. It had a knob to change the channels on it. We rarely turned that knob, however. We lived in the country and our rusty, old antenna could only pick up one channel clearly. If it was cloudy outside, I could go out and hand-turn the antenna half way around to try and pick up a second network, but usually it was only static. When I would go to school my friend who lived in town would describe all of the shows he watched on the channels we couldn't get and I would share the shows I watched that he didn't get to see. It was a fun way to pass an afternoon especially if it was raining at recess.

These days I have cable with over one hundred channels. I can click my remote through them at lightening speed. More often than not, however, I find myself watching some rerun from my childhood on an oldies station. On my computer there are shows, videos, and stories from all over the world. Yet, time and time again I find myself getting bored, turning it off, and picking up an old book to read instead. My daughter has a smart phone that she can work with a skill that makes my head spin. She can get any information she needs from the internet in mere seconds. Still, it seems a bit too fast for me at times. I don't mind slowly browsing through the dictionary or an encyclopedia instead.

Sometimes I think I was born a little too early for this world. Yet, one thing that I do know is that in this crazy, mixed-up, super-information society you still need to find the right wavelength. You still need to tune into God. You still need to turn your antenna to love. You still need to connect daily with kindness. Without these things life has no meaning. Without these things you gain no wisdom and have no joy. Without these things your soul is just static.