As soon as I retired I set into motion a few significant projects. A cruise on the Adriatic took place within months. Creation of My Space took longer. But now I have half a previously unusable room, kept fully functional for two years. It has a stereo, large desk with midspace for my laptop and perimeter for all else based largely on usage. Planning materials and notebook in front. Lights directed to illuminate my central work spaces, full coffee cup to my right, empty coffee cups to my left. There is a recycling bag, not yet entirely full within reach. I captured a functional but worn recliner, investing in a new navy textured cover for it. And the largest purchase, a 55 inch flat screen TV with advanced cable. I used to watch it all the time, now much less.
Despite a plethora of channels, I watch mostly three. It took a while to figure out how to isolate Create TV, Science Channel, and Jewish Broadcasting Service as my Favorites, but now I can just navigate to the favorites bar. After supper each evening, I scroll through each, capturing the schedule from 7PM to 6AM the following morning, setting the record option for what I want to see over the next few days. Most shows repeat a few times, so I preferentially record overnight, leaving me some time to scroll through channels 1471 to 1480 to see what's on at the time, as I tend to like the nature shows or some of the history options, or maybe some travel programs. But over time, I watch mostly what captured my attention a day or two before.
Having done this a few months, I get a better sense of what interests me. Create TV's schedule seems dominated by food preparation shows which rarely get tapped for recording even though time in the kitchen has provided me considerable pleasure in retirement. I much prefer to scan my cookbooks or surf the internet for recipes I might like to try myself. Travel shows capture me more. I haven't been to that many places but would have liked to visit more. And when I do travel, the destinations tend to be either purposeful like a professional conference or destination like vacation, neither affording me the same opportunity to poke around that the hosts of the travel shows have. I don't much like the local people dressing up in costume to perform for tourists; it just seems too contrived. But there was a time when I would walk through neighborhoods, or more recently drive through them, in the towns where I lived and enjoy seeing the hosts do something similar in the places they visit.
Jewish TV seems more problematic in the selections. I have gotten reacquainted with the Talmud half-hours, though I record more than I watch. Same for discussions, some outstanding, some contrived with people of prominence pitching their ideological hardballs. I record more than I watch, but rarely delete one prematurely. If recording capacity were more crammed I would.
If a theme emerges, perhaps I am attracted more to external to me more than part of me. Cooking is participatory, travel to places remote is more the spectator me. Jewish thought captures me more than Jewish identity. I support Israel as a Jewish homeland more in the way I supported Refuseniks. I have an obligation to peoplehood but as I see from JBS, Israel is for Israelis to exercise their sovereignty while I watch. My head will nod sometimes, shake sometimes but the passion in either direction doesn't materialize. Yet I remain interested enough to select some for viewing, though not to interrupt what I am doing instead to watch these things at the time of broadcast. Maybe how I choose what I do when or save something I want for later makes one of the more reliable disclosures of the inner me.
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