97. Television

           

           I was born and raised in Idaho, so was Philo Farnsworth. I make no claims to being anywhere as intelligent as Mr. Farnsworth but I am one who enjoys the invention of that somewhat famous Idaho inventor. I don’t know a lot about the man and I suspect, since he spent a great deal of time in Utah, that Utah might actually be the place he worked on his invention that we call television. But Mr. Farnsworth was from Idaho and his invention is American, though I have no doubt that others probably also worked on similar inventions. (As I recall, I drove through a town in Scotland that made similar claims to television.) At any rate, I like TV.

            I don’t wish to claim that television isn’t like every other technological invention mankind makes. I know its purposes can be both good and evil, but I try to enjoy its better purposes. I like how it can bring books to life. It can take real things happening one place in the world into another part of the world. I like all of those things. I’m part of the Baby Boomer generation, so I’m in that first generation of people who actually grew up with television. It probably is no great surprise that I like it.

            I wouldn’t say I’m a television addict because I don’t spend tons of time watching it. I am also very capable of living without it. I can easily entertain myself with a garden and books and, in fact, that’s what I usually do. But it’s still nice to spend some time watching some police show like “Blue Bloods” or a drama like “This is Us.” And I’m not shy about admitting to having been a fan of the old shows like “Sanford and Son” and “All in the Family.” Those are aspects of television and American culture that I have always been steeped in and I don’t have any problem with taking pride in that cultural heritage. So from one Potatohead to another, I thank you, Mr. Farnsworth, for inventing television.