Leisure Time
I labored yesterday on Labor Day. It seemed fitting. A friend came over and we did a makeover. We dismantled an artifact of my previous life and made it into something new. It was an entertainment center, perfectly designed to house CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes with a big space for the TV to sit. It was a well constructed, heavy-duty piece of furniture. But it came in parts, so I removed some of them. The top half to be exact.
Now, the flat TV is attached to the wall, and my audio components sit on and in what’s left of the unit, a low slung cabinet with doors. There’s no longer a hulking, brown, wooden giant sitting in the front room demanding my attention, I have a sleek, modern look about me. And maybe one of these days, I’ll replace my 55-inch screen with something even more in tune with the times. Maybe I’ll go all the way to 80.
Of course, I can remember the days of tube TVs. I had one in the early days of my marriage. It was a 19-inch black-and-white console TV. When a tube went out, I could walk across the street to the drugstore, test the tube and buy a replacement. It’s where I learned about capacitors. And now I know how to hang a TV on the wall, connect it to the internet, set up my amplifier to stream, and move between surround sound and all channel stereo with ease. The skills of modern life. Apps. No more hunting and gathering for me. It’s a drive to the grocery store, then back home for TV. It’s all about the leisure.