Berin Kinsman

“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.”–Chinese Proverb

Katie and I have a television in the studio simply because we both work better with some sort of background noise. When I head into the studio  I click on CBS This Morning, because I’ve been enjoying getting my news from the great Charlie Rose, and in the evening I like to get Scott Pelley’s (largely unbiased) reports. Left to her own devices, Katie will switch to PBS or one of its digital sub-stations, so we listen to a lot of children’s programming, documentaries, and cooking shows. I say listen because we’re usually not paying attention to the television; I’m writing, she’s making art. So even though the television might be on all day long, when we say we don’t watch a lot of TV, it’s technically true. In the evenings, you’re more likely to find the two of us with our heads stuck in books than watching television — assuming we’re home and not out being social or doing volunteer work.

For some reason, people get flack for saying they don’t watch much (or any) television, as if they’re being either snooty and elitist, disingenuous liars, or both. There’s a hidden message that television is the social norm, reading isn’t, and you’re some kind of weirdo if you pick books over TV. Well, most people already know that Katie and I are some kind of weirdos.

I have nothing against television — I love it.  I also love ice cream and cheeseburgers, but I know that they’re things best enjoyed in moderation. Television can inform, educate, and inspire as well as simply entertain, something those that bust on the “idiot box” as well as people who seem to live for television seem to forget sometimes. For us, television has to fit into our overall vision of what we want from our lives. Like a book, it can be a garden.

If you haven’t already seem the Mister Rogers “Garden of Your Mind” video, you need to watch it. If you’ve already seen it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy seeing it again!

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