Amusing Ourselves to Death

There is a famous book by Neil Postman by this name, Amusing Ourselves to Death.  I think the guy may be on to something with this idea.  I have been a bit surprised by the extent of our entertainment needs.

I mentioned before, that our flat, was totally barren when I was assigned it on about 17 January.  We brought with us a Swedish radio (European plug and runs on 250v) that we bought for about $1.50 at the Loppis store, our favorite, in Ostersund.  The first few days, I played that radio a lot, just to have some noise in the empty, Brenda-less apartment.

Last Thursday I was happy to secure a promise of home internet access.  Chidozie, my local mentor took me to sign up.  The lady said, “we have to have a 12=month contract minimum.”  Chidozie started to challenge her, but I cut in to say, “Sure, that’s fine”.  When we left, Chidozie said, “You sure wanted internet didn’t you?”  Yes I did.

I spent a good part of Saturday morning assembling from pieces a satellite disk to receive TV.  I took a piece of chord, tied a weight to it, and after a half-dozen tries, managed to strong co-axial cable from the dish across our 4-story high roof, to the back balcony, then into the decoder.  We still lack an actual TV set, but we are ready.

I don’t have a paper, but happily read the paper at the hotel when I was there.  We have found things to do, and so we have amused ourselves, and not yet to death.

I am a bit surprised at our entertainment needs.  As I wrote earlier, I was hoping that the lack of entertainment would equal a greater opportunity for prayer, meditation, and Bible study.  But I guess soon that will be replaced by re-runs of American sit-coms.

What a trade-off.  Maybe we are amusing ourselves to death!