When I was a child growing up in boring suburban Ohio, too tantalizingly close to Cincinnati to dream of enjoying urban life, but too far away for there to be any public transportation to release me from my sad rural prison without walls, I spent countless hours watching TV. One year I'm sure I must have broken the world record of hours watched. The result is that a few years back I swore off TV. I don't own a set and have no clue as to what has happened in the last ten years. Yes, I've heard of those legendary names, Star Ac, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Glee... but I only have a vague notion of what they are about. I may have taken a glimpse at a friend's house or heard people talking about some cliffhanger, but it's mostly a mystery to me. I never took in any of those reality shows, and I'm pretty sure I did not miss anything important. You see, I realized that life is what people make out of it. I want to live. I don't want to waste it away... vicariously.. My Friends can be better than Ross and Chandler. The episodes of the Days of My Life are pretty lame but they are certainly mine!
There is one exception to my no TV rule. That is when I return to the boring suburban (or exburban as they now say) town of my youth. I read, I blog, I surf, I talk, I think and I watch TV. My obsession roars its head. I watch The View-- I say it's educational and helps me catch up on the American culture I have missed in Frogland-- and I discover some sitcom everyone knows about and watch 10 seasons at once. Last time it was Sex in the City. This time it is How I Met Your Mother.
Why have I become obsessed with How I Met Your Mother in the last two weeks? Humm. Well, I guess if people thought Friends was a true-to-life, or an idealized version of friendship everyone could/should identify with, How I Met Your Mother transcends that. It shows how individuals are highly complex, play different roles and reveal only part of themselves at any given time-- yeah, and that includes even with ones friends. Moreover, the boundaries between love, friendship, camaraderie, jealousy, hate, need and desire tend to blur. Yes, it appears that everybody is a bit of a hypocrit and suffers from a certain degree of schizophrenia, bipolarity or multipersonality disorder. Whereas the "Friends" seemed like a role model for American youth, being about as perfect as can be, the characters of How I Met Your Mother come closer to showing true human nature and imperfection (if we get beyond the fact they are young, dynamic and beautiful too). And nothing is a taboo to them, from bodily functions to cheating on significant others. It all happens and is natural.
As I have enjoyed numerous re-run episodes daily, what I like most are Lily's ingenious quotes that are serious food for thought. The time I spend pondering her quotes I consider a success for the show. Indeed, I have always been an admirer of Bertold Brecht's theatre of the people. TV, just like plays, should do more than just entertain, it needs to teach and broaden the mind of the spectator.
Quote 1 (from linked episode):
Lily-- "OK, yes it's a mistake. I know it's a mistake, but there are certain things in life where you know it's a mistake but you don't really know it's a mistake because the only way to really know it's a mistake is to make the mistake and look back and say 'yep, that was a mistake.' So really, the bigger mistake would be to not make the mistake, because then you'd go your whole life not knowing if something is a mistake or not. And dammit, I've made no mistakes! I've done all of this; my life, my relationship, my career, mistake-free. Does any of this make sense to you?"
I, for one, have always spent my life trying to avoid making mistakes and tend to weigh the pro and con excessively before taking important (or even unimportant) decisions. The idea that this could be my worst and biggest error rocks my world, in a way Brecht would be proud of.
Another dialogue from the last episode of season 4:
"LILY: Architecture is killing you, Ted, and it's killing us to watch it killing you. You're like that goat with the washcloth, you want it so bad, and every time the world tries to take it away from you, you keep grabbing it. But you know what? Why do you even want it?
TED: Because I have to be an architect. That's... that's the plan.
LILY: Screw the plan, I planned on being a famous artist, but became a kindergarten teacher... You can't design your life like a building... It doesn't work that way. You just have to live it and it will design itself."
This also gave me a shiver. My big plans (becoming a university professor in France) have been thwarted because I have spent years trying to insert a square object into a round hole. My life in a sense has been on hold as I thought it would naturally happen one way or another, just like they teach us in A Field of Dreams. "If you build it he will come!" Perhaps I should chuck everything including the temporary jobs I've been doing to take a big risk.
Could this TV show have provided me with the answers to my enigma of Floating in France? Or am I just getting re-hooked on some sort of drug I weaned myself of more than a decade ago? Probably so, since I have been thinking... hum... why not get a TV again, just watch the good stuff...yeah. That's addition, huh. I will probably be sensible and put TV and How I Met Your Mother on hold until my next visit to the little village in the middle of the forest
One of the most distablizing aspects of my life in France, is my schedule. Not that it's hectic, it's just completely disorganized and that wrecks havoc on all the other aspects of my life. For a teacher there is a tendancy to have hours grouped together at any time on any given day. For example, on Monday I teach from 4:45 to 8:00, Tuesday is my only free day for the moment, Wednesday all day from 9am to 8:30 pm with quite a few gaps in the middle, Thursday 3:30 to 6 pm, Friday 8am to 10:30, Saturday 9:30-10:30 and 2pm to 4pm. All of this is subject to change too. It's not really the number of classes (I only have 6 or 7, all once a week) it's the fact that I never disconnect from this activity that gives me no pleasure. The result of all this is my equilibrium is out of sync. Classes are always more or less on my mind and I never have time to dedicate completely to any other activities: writing, fitness, cinema, culture, small trips, socializing, deep thinking. Sometimes, I even have to find time to go grocery shopping since in this town everything closes at 7pm. Add housework with other obligations in life and I'm spinning. This is a key element to my floating in France. One days glides chaotically into the next. I go to bed early one night, then really late the next. I cook and eat on the run. It's frustrating. For a teacher, it's nearly impossible to have a set schedule. As the year spins by I get bogged down in preparations, corrections and photocopies, I become detached, and lose my soul. Besides, when one is contemplating change in profession, change of city, change of lifestyle, the result is chaos. My tragic flaw: I'm not multitasked
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