The Temptations of Television

Tangerine w/green leaves. Photo by author. December 6, 2024.

The evening hung a shroud over me, not the Shroud of Turin but comparable to its gloom.

Earlier, I’d gone for a walk, a frolic involving medicine and alcohol in which a pulled tooth had created some real physical distress, causing me to misplace cherished concepts of epistemology and personal freedom.

Walking always does this to me! First I lose my way and then I lose my mind, and by the time I’ve walked to the top of the hill I’ve already fallen to the bottom vowing never to do this again, this being walking, and never again to mix alcohol with medicine, though the doctor had given me permission to do so, writing a prescription that I could present to the nice ladies at the CVS pharmacy on 19th & Ortega.

Common sense is supposed to make it clear that opiates and alcohol are a real ‘enemy of the people’, though it does now seem that common sense is instead ‘the real enemy of the people’, the people having elected the new president of the United States.

Ugh, I thought, I have to live through yet another presidency, this new one which is the old one, the old one coming after the even slightly older one, the one who’s becoming new again in 2025.

Really? I have to live through 4 brand new years beginning in 2025 under this guy? Why me? Is it wimpy to ask this question?

It seems that Stoicism might be the answer, at least for me, though it could be argued that stoicism is no answer at all. The answer then is not the answer, it being entirely possible that no answer is the answer. No, the answer is not no, the answer is yes.

The answer: buy a tangerine, take it home and turn on the TV.

Confirmed: taking a tangerine apart and enjoying the tangerine with real pleasure while watching TV is the answer.