Sitting, Watching Others Move

My recent comment on my finding sitting in a row of seats at the ballpark or theater or concert-hall to be highly confining reminded me of a comment I posted in a grumpy mood to one of my web-groups back in 2001, under the title "Sitting, Watching Others Move" (perhaps we can call this the SWOM Factor, for short):

Several of us...went to see David Mamet's American Buffalo at the American Theater Company last night. The play and the performance were fine, although the un-air-conditioned theater was uncomfortably hot (we're experiencing a heat/humidity wave here in Chicago).

But I was reminded once again of an incapacity I have been developing. I simply do not any longer enjoy sitting, watching others move. And the more and the longer my movement is constricted, the less I like it. This affects attendance at movies, plays, concerts, dance, and sporting events. It even affects watching television and videos on the couch at home. This is coming to be a philosophical position with me: why should I spend my precious God-given time sitting, watching others move? I should be the one who's moving. I'm the one who's alive in my life. Those movers I watch, whether they are projections on a screen or live bodies, are just shadows on the wall of my cave (as Plato put it in his famous parable). The whole point is getting out of the cave into the sunshine. Or, to put it in cruder terms, the passive American "entertain me" culture sucks. Entertain yourself, damn it!

Now, this doesn't mean I don't still love and respect movies, baseball, etcetera. It does mean my knowledge of them may not grow, because I can't imagine giving them the time I once did; I can't imagine agreeing to sitting, watching others move that much. What isn't covered by my strictures? Reading, radio, listening to CDs, going to art museums and galleries. With all those activities I can move around at will, interrupt at will, take the activities out into the throbbing world with me. They are portable, interactive, and stimulating. They don't rob me of my life. Hence, from now on, I will certainly favor them. This is where I find myself, and I kind of like it here!

OK, so I was a little worked up; and I'm not feeling so extreme about it now. But I still do feel that I was raising an important point, at least for my life. And I did back off attendance at any activities that would require me to sit still for very long. I made my peace with my love of movies by essentially stopping going to the multiplex (my last visits were in early 2007, twice for Zodiac, and once for 300 -- that one was someone else's suggestion for an outing, I assure you!). I receive all my cinematic entertainment by way of DVDs now, and not even on one of today's mammoth home screens, but on a widescreen laptop. I'm aware that there's a trade-off involved here, and I cherish many memories of movies seen on the "big screen" -- but the ritual just stopped working for me; I need to be able to pause and move about.

I stopped watching television on television, too; if a series is good enough to watch, I'll wait for full season DVD sets. Not having any television at home has been tremendously liberating (and economizing), my only regret being not having access to Turner Classic Movies. I did enjoy that station and many of its unique offerings, especially since DVR (Digital Video Recorder) technology made it possible for me to pause films, or save them for later viewing. I keep debating whether to break down and get a television set and cable again for this one channel; if TCM could just be delivered to my laptop I might get over that thought, although a larger screen for my DVD viewing is probably in the cards at some point.

Still -- with any of these variations of home viewing, I get to move around. I have to be able to do that. The SWOM Factor was ultimately very impactful for me.