Okay, get your minds out of the gutter. Not that kind of playing with myself.
Sometimes I spend a whole day watching some stupid TV show or multiples of a particular flavor of movie (say, British accents or costume dramas or chick flicks). Admitting that out loud is not easy, and there’s a temptation to comment on the habit, but I’m just going to skip the self-criticism this time. So the game is basically trying to figure out why the hell am I doing this??
At the back of my mind, I know there’s some reason I’m watching this specific thing, even if the more general reason is just escape from my life or taking time to heal or whatever. There’s some reason this particular video caught my eye at the library, why I’m drawn to this distraction and not others.
So yesterday that show was Skins, and good criminy, let’s just say it lends itself well to this game. The show itself had very little redeeming value– short on believable plots and likeable characters, long only on eye candy (that Nicholas Hault sure did grow up cute, didn’t he? Look out, Michael Cera). But clearly if I invested that many hours of my life, I was getting something out of it, right?
Know what I got? Inspired to clean. I often watch the background of shows. I want to see the environment where these characters hang out. And those kids hang out in freakin’ squalor, man. Ick. So today, I was inspired to take my stove apart to clean it, an activity I cannot imagine having been motivated to do if I hadn’t watched that show. So, thanks, Skins! My kitchen is now sparkling.
Does anyone else play this game? Trying to parse out the hidden meaning in some seemingly random choice of entertainment?
It can happen with music, too. I’ll need to listen to a song constantly and then only in hindsight realize that the song made a lot of sense in context. Like when I blasted Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young” constantly in the weeks after I found out my mom had a few weeks to live, while at the time being perfectly unconscious of the connection (I thought I was craving the sensation of belting out “a nice white dress and a party on your confirmation”). Or when The Weepies‘ “I Gotta Have You” on repeat was the soundtrack to a rough spell with my sweetie “And I won’t be warm/’til I’m lying in your arms.”
I’d love to hear if other people play this game or any version of it. Come on, tell me I’m not alone.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I play this game all the time (well, mostly the part about checking out the environment [and other miniscule details] on videos). I can’t help it, I’m an English major. Heh! I FINALLY get to say that after decades of being a dissatisfied “communication arts” graduate. Yay me.
Ya know, I’ve never really thought about it before. On a larger scale, I wonder why some types of music and literature have such deep meaning for me? Especially music and lit that other folks would definitely yawn at?
I’ve been reading “A Whole New Mind” at the Barnes & Noble library (don’t worry, I’ll probably buy a copy when I’m done) all about the qualities of mind that are considered right-brained. They include intuition and holistic thinking and synthesis and all those things we just sort of “get” without being able to deconstruct logically. Sounds like you’re describing some right-brain leadership taking you somewhere you didn’t realize you wanted to go. It’s cool to have a right-brain that gives a damn, I say!
Steve´s last blog ..Play is Life