I get all sorts of nightmares about television and its harmful effects on life, only that I cannot seem to pull myself away from the darn thing. It is like a spell that has held me totally stuck, totally devoted and firmly in it's' grip. I will share one of the most recent most horrifying nightmares.

You know those fast forward clips you see on television, used to illustrate progress and development over time. For example a person can start off seated in an empty room which fills up over time with all sorts of furniture and good things. Helps the decorators to see how ideas are developed, I guess.

I had this fast forward clip nightmare with me seated staring at the Television the whole time. It starts off with me alone, and then my wife joins me and then our two children. They grow up with my eyes still glued to the tube. They fight, do all sorts of cheeky things, but I never notice because my eyes are glued to the box.

Worse of all, my wife talks and I ignore her. She walks up to where I am seated and forcefully turns my head so that I can face her and listen to what she is saying (she's had to do that several times). Even then my ears are listening to the sound coming from the box rather than what she is saying. The moment she releases my head, it quickly turns back to the tube.

The kids grow up and they stand at the door and wave goodbye. But I hardly notice because... (You've guessed it.) And then I suddenly take my eyes off the tube one day to find that I am old. My faithful wife who gave up many years ago is still there
with me seated at a corner knitting something. But she's sickly and coughing all the time. The kids are all gone and yet I never really had the chance to get to know them. Heck I never even noticed them growing up.

Worse of all I am old and tired and have no idea where my life went so fast.

Shortly after this nightmare I took my family to the beach for a change. It wasn't too bad. We live in a coastal town now and one would have thought that we would take full advantage of it after all the previous years of being stuck in some stuffy town. But thanks mainly to television; it has not quite worked out like that.

The trip to the beach was not too bad. Except it took a lot of planning and I was worried sick the whole time. Worried of pickpockets, muggers and other criminals at the beach. Every time I was in the water and some stranger passed near where my family were, my heart would skip a beat.