Maya

[breathtest]

the medium of television provides us
with sufficient distance from death
so that we may laugh at it. Without
a screen as a veil, we would suffer with
the weight of our mortality.

[lallison]

Interesting thought. Is that what people did before there was TV?

[Pryderi Agni]

Wow. Nice 'What-If?' poem there.

By your leave, a little addendum:

The stunted people,
the selfish people,
the bloody people,
the crazy people,
the spoon-fed, information-hungry, shallow people...

...Are a matter of the future.
Now let us enjoy our book.

[Il Dante]

The stunted people,
the selfish people,
the bloody people,
the crazy people,
the spoon-fed, information-hungry, shallow people...

...Are a matter of the future.
Now let us enjoy our book.

LOL.

TV can provide a means of relief from the realization of mortality. However: there are somewhat more edifying ways of procuring such relief. These ways include books, as Pryderi Agni notes.

[dizzydoll]

And lets not forget the mind is maya. TV feeds on this. :crash:

[hannah_t]

I like that; it's very true. We spend our lives laughing at things that if they happened in real like would actually destroy us. Very nicely done :)

[breathtest]

Interesting thought. Is that what people did before there was TV?

The screen i refer to can be anything that takes us out of our own lives. It can be books, television, drugs, anything. The television is just the most common 'screen' against reality that we have today.

[Buh4Bee]

I always like poems that play around with the theme of life and death.

I also like the structure of this poem, with the punctuation in the third line. The poem is really only two sentences, if you were to think about it that way.

[Il Dante]

The screen i refer to can be anything that takes us out of our own lives. It can be books, television, drugs, anything. The television is just the most common 'screen' against reality that we have today.

Ultimately, the question becomes: are screens good or bad? That's a deep philosophical question. Some might say we should stand and face reality.

And then there's those of the "you can't handle the truth" school of thought.

I dunno. It's a deep question. But, as your poem states, life would be very difficult to bear without "screens."

[breathtest]

Ultimately, the question becomes: are screens good or bad? That's a deep philosophical question. Some might say we should stand and face reality.

And then there's those of the "you can't handle the truth" school of thought.

I dunno. It's a deep question. But, as your poem states, life would be very difficult to bear without "screens."

I think to maintain the life we have now requires these screens, but without anything at all to protect us ... i don't know ... it's unimaginable. I think that there has never been a society in history that does not have something to help them get by. The earliest societies i guess had shamanism, with natural drugs and chanting and music to help them become intoxicated and go on an inner journey, and today we have more superficial forms. Probably society would not exist otherwise.

[lallison]

Religion is a pretty big screen too. Marx called it the opiate of the masses. Just wanted to add another happy thought.

[blazeofglory]

the medium of television provides us
with sufficient distance from death
so that we may laugh at it. Without
a screen as a veil, we would suffer with
the weight of our mortality.

This mirrors the painful realit man lives with or else life is so short and a big void indeed

[hack]

As we are social animals,
we all see life through
that screen. Besides,
how else am I going to
see Carol Burnett?