Sometimes things get lost in words.  There is a presumption that communication is inherently clarifying, we talk to understand.  But sometimes the better route is to stay quiet.  I’m terrible at this, but I know it’s true.

Today I tossed my iPhone on the couch and a message came up that said, “nothing to undo”.  Untrue, iPhone, untrue.

Today I came home early and watched TV.  Every afternoon in Sydney they show episodes of Mork and Mindy, Happy Days, and the Brady Bunch one after another.  Today I watched all three.

Mork released the full range of his feelings, learning how to manage the complicated landscape of human emotions.  In Happy Days, the Fonz realized from his friends that he was fighting too much and learned to control his anger.  In the Brady Bunch the youngest son won a bet against the oldest, but learned that managing winning is as important as not losing.

I learned that TV really was different before.  In all the episodes the morality was unforced and kind.  It was human, not divine, in its source; humorous and not didactic in its delivery; genuine and not artificial in its sentiment.

We’ve lost this these days.  On our televisions our kindness is violent and our violence is extreme.  To watch TV in the modern world is to watch people die.  Mostly anyway.