Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Weaving the Web

April 4, 2008
Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern

April 21-27 is TV Turnoff Week, when many people have a seven-day break from the flow of television into their lives. I note this date every year because I have a dream of making it a church event, and because I share the founders’ vision of moving beyond “entertainment” to richer ways of engaging with our world.

Television is all right as far as it goes. It can be educational, thought-provoking, and just fun. But it takes up more space in most of our lives than we’d prefer. You know the statistics: children watch an average of several hours per day, and thousands of acts of violence (real and fictional) and many more thousands of advertising messages before they reach adulthood. Too much TV isn’t any better for adults than for kids. Whether or not television is a problem in itself, one thing it does is take up time and mind-space that could be given over to things we really treasure.

So TV Turnoff Week is about doing more of those things. Reading books, listening to music, playreading — or even writing our own books, making our own music, creating our own plays. Playing a game together as a family, or with friends. Singing in a pickup chorus or playing a game of pickup basketball. Going to the playground, taking a walk around an unfamiliar neighborhood, doing an act of community service, having a family dinner with time to hear each other’s thoughts instead of rushing to see the show that starts at 7.

This is a spiritual issue for everyone who values imagination and deep connections with each other. That’s why we already do lots of the above activities together as a congregation. Wouldn’t it be fun to step it up for one week in April — to commit to turning off the junk on television and coming over to UUCPA for a more filling (and fulfilling) meal? A game night, a singalong, a sports night, an evening to read aloud from our favorite books from Goodnight Moon to Life with Father … ?

I’m planning for next year. Tell me your ideas, and for 2009’s TV Turnoff Week, we’ll have a chock-full week at church to keep us all busy with activities that are truly fulfilling, connecting, and inspiring.

— Blessings,
Amy