Life's Too Short for Flat Soda and Stale Donuts

Years ago (1994, to be exact), I was leaving a theater after seeing "Il Postino" and I was so overcome with the beauty of the film, affection for the characters, and appreciation of the message that I vowed right there and then, "I'm not going to see any more bad movies. Life's too short to sit through bad movies. I want to see amazing movies like THAT." Well, I'm here to tell you that I've seen more than a few bad movies since then. Not only did I watch "Dude, Where's My Car?" more times on cable than I care to explain to you, but I have two little kids--it's par for the course to sit through a few real stinkers while the kids are howling with laughter at jokes clearly aimed for the under-ten crowd. However, my overall sentiment is the same as it was after seeing "Il Postino": Life is too short to waste time (or money) on inferior versions of things. Especially when you have a choice. And in America, we have no shortage of choices (many of them, really bad and worth skipping altogether).

I was reminded of this sentiment very recently when I read a short but incredibly insightful blog post at "First Today, Then Tomorrow" called "Pick One." Blogger Randy Murray writes: "You can have anything that you want for lunch. So why eat another bland fast food hamburger and french fries? There are literally hundreds of shows on the television. So why stare at another hour of screaming reality TV stars? You don't eat, drink, or watch bad things because they are cheap. You default to them because they are easy." Amen, Randy.

We have only so many waking hours in the day, and all of this sub-par stimuli is clamoring for our attention. Reality shows about mean people doing stupid things. Shopping malls and mail-order catalogs filled with STUFF we do not need*. Tell-all books, magazines, and websites that stalk and mock celebrities and celebrate their misfortunes. It's like drinking flat soda while eating a box full of stale donuts--where's the value in it? Why settle for this junk? Is it really worth your time and/or money?

I'm nowhere near perfect when it comes to avoiding all mind-numbing stimuli. Sometimes, after a long, grueling day, the last thing I want to do is "think deep thoughts"; it's pleasant to just turn off my brain for a while and kick back. I'm not talking about those moments; I'm talking about when I realize, with pleasant surprise, that I have a couple of free hours. How do I want to spend it? I can't tell you that I will absolutely always choose Dostoevsky over "Dude, Where's My Car?" And I can't tell you that I will always choose fresh air and a good, long walk over a nap. But I can tell you that by and large, I don't want to spend my free time reading somebody else's sales pitch or watching someone else's poor excuse for a good time. Life's just too short for stale donuts and flat soda.

Your turn: What's your favorite guilty pleasure? What's your favorite way to spend a free Sunday afternoon? Are they different or the same?

* Get taken off mailing lists for free at Catalog Choice.
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For quite a while now, I've been jealous of my son's passion for reading. How he can spend hours in his room devouring a good book, then gush about every detail to me later. And I asked myself, "Why don't you do that?" So now I'm promising to turn off the junk TV now & again (I do love my bad TV) & get back to reading. I do love getting lost in a good book.

Posted by: Debi | 03/30/2013 at 09:25 AM