The Saturday Stoke #13

Timothy Willard

Nov 15, 2019

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The holiday season is upon us. And what a blessed time it is. Family and friends gathering for turkey and ham and football and long cold walks in the woods. Memorable nights talking around the fire.Well, that's what I remember from childhood, and strive for now as I do my best to establish life-giving traditions for our family.

But times have changed, and though television has been around for quite some time, we face new challenges with programming and screen time.

I remember just a few years ago how Netflix and other media outlets revved up the guilt of getting left behind in your binge-watching for the holiday season. You must not get left behind, was their message.

Are your In-laws too much? Are the kids driving you nuts? Well, take a break from real life, and post-turkey binge on something less confrontational: television. I couldn't believe that our culture promoted bingeing.

How normative is bingeing today? Consider that 70% of Americans engage in binge-watching. SEVENTY! One study said viewers watch an average of five episodes per binge. And these studies are already a couple of years old.

Some studies suggest that bingeing can contribute to making us dumb.

Of course, this is all depressing. We wake up and go to work, come home and binge the next latest and greatest show. But life contains so much more. If only we could only escape our couches. But in our culture, the richest in the world, it is our luxury that blinds us, or so says Saint Augustine. Luxury feeds the greedy lifestyle that turns us into sedentary animals, content to gorge machine-made realities. Perhaps our well-fed avarice keeps us content.

Our greedy culture of luxury does play a role in all of this. But I believe bingeing stems from something deep within us all, and that is the need to feel deeply, to be understood, to know we're not alone.

In light of this desire to feel something deep within us, I suggest we stage a revolt and turn to a different type of bingeing this holiday season? What if we feasted upon something real and substantial, something other-worldly. What if we feasted upon the beauty and wonder of the real world that lies just beyond our back doors.

The twentieth-century novelist, Ray Bradbury, writes: "Stuff your eyes with wonder … live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories."

Netflix, Disney+, Amazon and their ilk egg us on to binge-watch our way to cognitive obesity while we munch on turkey and consume copious amounts of football—feeding the binge monster in us all.

But we don't have to abide by the rules of our binge-or-bust world. We can forge another path.

Einstein was all about taking a unique path in this life. I remember reading a story once about him experiencing an epiphany while attending a concert.

At the age of twelve, Yehudi Menuhin, who would later become one of the greatest violinists of the twentieth century, performed at the Berlin Philharmonic. Attending the concert was none other than Albert Einstein.

Following the performance, an exuberant Einstein rushed to the artist's room backstage. He hugged the young musician and said, "Now I know there is a God in heaven!"

Menuhin, recalling the scene years later, described Einstein as a great scientist, yes, but even more so, he says, Einstein was a prophet—one who sees. Einstein believed the pursuit of science eventually gives birth to the belief that "a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe—a spirit vastly superior to that of man."

For Einstein, the harmony, the symmetry, the beauty of nature and the cosmos told the story, or reminded one, of an immeasurable intelligence. He could not understand, in the light of such beauty, how people still believed that God did not exist.

We all of us can describe an encounter with the beautiful, can't we? You know the feeling. That unexplainable split second when an other-worldly sensation rushed into your heart, gave you goosebumps, and froze you in amazement—what Cambridge professor Peter de Bolla describes as "mutism," or being struck dumb.

For Einstein, the beauty of music and his experience with this profound beauty, confirmed his own belief that the cosmos was alive with beauty. I believe Einstein's declaration should ignite our hearts with spiritual fervour. Why? Because, in an age of noise, speed, and machines, beauty presents itself as a pathway leading to meaning and purpose. G. Gabrielle Star, professor of English at New York University, says that experiences with beauty, what she calls aesthetic experiences, “work to produce new value in what we see and feel.” Our epiphany moments, like Einsteins, “make us newly aware of being ourselves and being in the world.” But when our eyes remain glued to a screen, we isolate ourselves from the harmony of the cosmos. We willingly shrink our awareness of ourselves and others and God. I know cosmos is a big sounding word, but think of your own cosmos—your own world. Is it alive with beauty and wonder-moments; moments spent with loved ones; struck-dumb moments, like Einsteins, in which the brilliance of musical genius spoke so deeply that it took him to God himself.

Do we really want to fill the holidays with vacant hours binge-watching? Or do we want to fill it with memorable moments rooted in the life-giving-ness that comes from being out in the natural world, and being with real people.

If we're not experiencing mutism-type moments, then perhaps we need a bit more stoke in our lives.

Here's a quick hack for revolting against our binge-till-your-eyes-fall-out culture—a culture bent on making us dumb and blind to God's blessed creation.

And this hack contains a few elements.

First, I recommend stealing a chapter from REI's playbook. A few years ago they instituted their #OptOutside campaign. Rather than trying to cash in on everyone's downtime the day after Thanksgiving, they closed their doors and encouraged their employees and customers to get outside with friends and family.

Their revolutionary idea took the retail world by storm. So, as part one of the revolt, try applying the #OptOutside campaign to your own life. Instead of bingeing and eating and bingeing more, spend a few days outside exploring. Opt for more profound moments with your family that occur not in front of the television. Opt for deeper living. Shut down the Smart TV or the top-boxes, the tablet and go outside.

Second, evaluate your leisure time. What do you spend the bulk of your time doing? I find that when I catch myself doing too much of one thing, it's time to expand my horizons and find something new.

Are you watching too much television? Pick up painting? Can't remember what a tree looks like? Splurge on a good jacket and get on a local trail. Forgotten what your friends look like? Book a getaway to a secluded cabin or go camping—depending on your preference of course.

Finally, challenge yourself with some new reading material. Stuck reading trashy novels, shallow blogs, or the constant news cycle that only breeds bitterness and dissension? Then rebel! Sink your teeth into something meaty, something classic, something mind-bending.

If life suddenly becomes one dimensional, and you find yourself sitting in front of a screen for hours on end, it's time to join the revolution.

"But Tim," you say, "to which revolution are you referring? Everyone's bingeing; everyone's dumbing life down."

Well, of course, I'm referring to our quiet revolution here at The Stoke. What's this revolution about, you ask? Well, it is precisely about this, maybe in the cold, muddy, snowy mess of the real world around us, we'll remember the only thing worth binging on is life.

Stay stoked my friends.

Photo by Gaurav Kukreti on Unsplash