The Saturday Sketch

As I was browsing through my drawings to try and find one to use today, I came across this one and realized that it would fit right in with my ideas about technology and my last post. I was really thinking that the true beauty of the lifestyle where you walk through the door, is that it is free. I drew this because I think that the children who don't grow up with tv, etc. have so much more of an imagination. It is not just about avoiding the "techno-haven," because of the problems, it is also about the huge benefits that come from not having it. I wanted to capture in this girl the essence of that free life, and show that one of the higher forms of joy and entertainment is that which comes from your own mind and own imagination. There is so much out there to be seen and done with your own hands and your own life, and yet the very nature of a television is to be getting everything secondhand, watching others experience everything. It seems like such a waste of time, to watch other peoples lives. I babysit a little girl, who is about 4 years old and is one of the brightest children I know. Her family has no TV and they rarely watch movies at their relatives house. I was very curious because this child had an incredible imagination and wonderful vocabulary, I was trying to draw the connection between the two, so I asked her, "Do you like not having a television?" Then she laughed and looked at me and said, "Well you can't really sit on a televisions lap, or play a game with it, or give it a hug." That just blew my mind away, that a four year old child could have that kind of wisdom, beyond anything I have achieved by thinking and posting about this, and far beyond what America thinks about television, family life, and children. It is not impossible to achieve, this child has and you can too.