Give Thanks...The Lack Of Sports

 Last fall we made the decision to "cut the cable" and reduce the amount of visual entertainment we've allowed into our home. Since then I've learned several things, the biggest...

Sports isn't as important in my life and I thought it was.

Most of my life, I've followed sports. Back when there was only three channels on TV--pre-cable television--I'd watch whatever was on. Saturday's Wide World of Sport was on and we watched figure skating, all types of auto racing, skiing, bowling, tennis...you name it. If they showed it, I watched it. 

Then, the world evolved. Cable television was invented and then came ESPN. For so long I didn't have cable--it cost too much. The first time I had cable continuously was when I began working for the cable company thirty years ago. Since then, we've had cable TV almost the whole time. This last time we discontinued services due to prices of everything going up faster than my income, i.e. inflation--we decided we didn't need cable.

And we don't.

We're not completely without visual entertainment, but one thing we gave up was access to sports, 24-hour, round-the-clock sports. Tomorrow night arguably the world's greatest sports tournament comes to a close, March Madness. Yes, I watched games, but only those on broadcast TV.

It's been a strange going without the sports I used to watch all the time. I've definitely undergone withdrawals. I'm reminded of the days before I had cable, when I would listen to games on the radio, or read about the game the next day in the newspaper. Now, I can watch games states in real time, or listen to the game in real time on-line. 

I'm amazed at how much time I used to spend watching sports. The TV is where I've watched games on broadcast TV. You'll notice it's turned off. At this very moment as I'm writing this, the Utah Jazz are playing their latest opponent. I turned it off before halftime because the Jazz were, once again, losing. It's not been a good year for them. 

See that book? Instead of watching I should be finishing that book and many more books. I should be writing books. I think if I ever make it as an author it is due, in part, to the fact we axed cable in the fall of 2023.

At least, that's what I'm going to tell myself.

I'm thankful for this glimpse of how life can be without access to sports 24-hours a day. I'm thankful life is still good and I'm existing. I'm thankful to have the time to do things that are much more important.

I'm thankful for all of it.