'Summer of No Television' leads to creative imagination

Forty years after the “Summer of Love,” which occurred in 1967 seven years before I was born, comes my family’s self-imposed “Summer of No Television.”
Anticipating a move from Wautoma to Stevens Point as soon as our house sells, hopefully sometime this decade, we canceled our cable subscription.
It was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. My wife and I debated and argued about it, until we finally compromised to do so after the last of our shows finished its regular season.
Fittingly, this last show was the final episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos,” a show we’ve both been watching since before we started dating. Initially, we were both disappointed by the ending to this great show, mainly because it didn’t offer a definitive conclusion, but since then we’ve come to realize the many different interpretations of the final fade-to-black scene make it perfect. It leaves the viewer to his or her imagination to guess what happened.
I’ve rediscovered this imagination since pulling the plug on our cable. Books I purchased years ago but never got around to reading, like “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” are suddenly getting dusted off after being removed from our bookshelf for the purpose they were intended – to be read.
I’m a book-reading machine now, something I haven’t been since junior high when I lived in a rural area with only three network channels and two UHF channels. Back then, I would read some books three times before returning them to the library. When we moved to a city with cable, my book-reading volume instantly declined. Who wants Stephen King when you can have your MTV?
This is not the first time I’ve canceled my cable. I did so when I was single in 1998. After “Seinfeld” ended, I voiced my opposition to the lack of good television by getting rid of it. I know my protest was effective because, just a few short months later in January 1999, HBO introduced “The Sopranos.”
I’m still waiting for at least one thank you from any one of the millions of “The Sopranos” fans for my action that resulted in this show, as well as the other good shows like “Lost,” “Heroes” and “The Office” that have followed since my protest. I won’t hold my breath waiting for a thank you, though.
This year’s “Summer of No Television” will end when we move, or when the fall season returns in late August. No matter how bad “Prison Break” got this last season, I still need to know find out what will happen to Lincoln and Michael this coming season.
And don’t get me started on “Lost.” Last season’s finale was television at its best. I’m just mad that I have to wait until January for season three to begin. Flash forward. Wow. Even in my wildest imagination that I’m redeveloping I would never have dreamed of that.
This “Summer of No Television” isn’t entirely television-free. We still watch DVDs. My 2-year-old, Braden, gets a daily fix of a lot of strange but charmingly wonderful characters through some of his cartoon movies. Boog the Bear, Elliot the Deer, Sully the Monster, Lightning McQueen the Race Car, Nemo the Clown Fish, R.J. the Raccoon, Mumbo the Dancing Penguin, Simba the Lion and a multitude of others are familiar faces in our household.
Some of these faces may become a little too familiar after the 20th viewing, but I’m not going to protest because the producers did a great job of making them appealing to adults also. Just listen to the soundtracks. They’re loaded with music by the likes of Paul Westerberg (The Replacements – greatest band ever), Elton John, Ben Folds and other adult-friendly artists.
Braden hasn’t really noticed our cable is missing, mainly because he has access to these movies. Once in a while he tells me to turn on “Little Einsteins” or “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” but he’s usually content playing with his play-dough or cars. Maybe he’ll develop his imagination with his daddy this summer.
The “Summer of Love” and the “Summer of No Television” may appear to have absolutely nothing in common; the reality is there would be more love if people turned off their televisions and turned on their imaginations. Imagine this world where all you have is love.