It91裸聊视频檚 five o91裸聊视频檆lock. Time to watch the local TV news. But my body refuses to rise out of my easy chair.
I realize I don91裸聊视频檛 want to watch the news. Any news.
We have only one TV channel here in the Okanagan. Everything else comes from outside: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto91裸聊视频nd from dozens of U.S. cities. Over 500 channels available.
But only one local news channel whose one-hour program depends heavily on video of fires, accidents, and sports highlights. It91裸聊视频檚 followed by half an hour of the Global Network91裸聊视频檚 national news, which depends heavily on war footage, mass shootings, and talking heads trying to convince us that they91裸聊视频檝e been right all along. Then a half-hour repeat of the juiciest bits of the earlier hour of local fires, accidents, and sports.
Somehow, this isn91裸聊视频檛 the world I wanted to retire into.
An insurance company used to promote 91裸聊视频淔reedom 55.91裸聊视频� It sold the notion that by investing with them, I could retire at 55 to something resembling Donald Trump91裸聊视频檚 Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. With someone much younger than me. Who mixes excellent Margaritas.
Freedom 55 has been replaced by Reverse Mortgages. So that when I die 91裸聊视频� which I will, inevitably 91裸聊视频� I can leave less to my family.
Assuming that all of us haven91裸聊视频檛 been bombed, shot, burned, frozen, scorched, drowned, or suffocated by then.
TV news just doesn91裸聊视频檛 appeal to me anymore. After yet another mass shooting in the U.S., I got so turned off guns that I resolved not to watch any program that culminates in a shoot-out.
That cuts my viewing options by at least 50 per cent.
It leaves me mostly with programs on public service channels: CBC across Canada, Knowledge Network here in B.C., PBS in the U.S91裸聊视频�.
The Brits, somehow, manage to create lively, entertaining, and even funny murder mysteries that don91裸聊视频檛 conclude with a shoot-out: Death in Paradise, Vera, Morse, Lewis, Endeavour, Midsomer Murders91裸聊视频ustralia and New Zealand do the same with Miss Fisher, Brokenwood, Dr. Blake91裸聊视频� Canada91裸聊视频檚 Murdoch Mysteries sets a standard for literacy and historical research 91裸聊视频� along with convoluted plots.
But in a sense, all of these are escapism. They take me to a world where people are generally decent to each other. Where criminals let themselves be handcuffed without struggle. They commit murders,true 91裸聊视频� but they91裸聊视频檙e nice about it.
Doc Martin can even be rude nicely.
It91裸聊视频檚 not the world I see on the nightly news. Maybe it91裸聊视频檚 a world that never existed, except in my imagination.
I91裸聊视频檓 tired of seeing emaciated children die of starvation. Of seeing people heaving rubble aside with their bare hands to rescued buried relatives. Of watching political leaders malign each other, with no indication they91裸聊视频檝e ever actually talked with the other person. Of hearing about corporate CEOs getting a multi-million bonus for laying off thousands of staff. And of corporations raking in record profits while making the planet less livable.
I don91裸聊视频檛 like it. And I91裸聊视频檓 slowly realizing I don91裸聊视频檛 have to like it.
Maybe I91裸聊视频檓 kidding myself. Maybe I91裸聊视频檓 just pulling the covers up over my head, hoping that the monster under the mattress will go away. Maybe I91裸聊视频檓 guilty of escapism.
Regardless, I91裸聊视频檓 voting with my 91裸聊视频渙ff91裸聊视频� button.
Jim Taylor lives in Lake Country: rewrite@shaw.ca
