When My Life Actually Began (Post-Television) in Ecco Domani

In my professional (and personal life) I am a chef. I currently cook, & bartend at a hotel. Work has been tough, to say the least, these past few years through the Pandemic. I have probably averaged 55-60 hour work weeks since restaurants opened back up. Currently, during the Worker Shortage, I am the only evening, and banquet chef, which consists of 12+ hour days sometimes with 4 hours of rest in between. Practicing work/life balance has been thrown out of the window, and I am currently picking up the pieces as best as I can.

Outside of my Professional life I am 12 year Yoga Practitioner, Musician, and dedicated reader. I learned to play piano in college (even though I was an English Major), I have finally purchased my own 88 weighted keyboard, and am continuing my lessons 20 to 30 minutes a night after work. I had previously played by ear: Beatles songs (i.e. Hey Jude, Let It Be, and other basic chord ballads.) Now, I am teaching myself to read sheet music beginning with Chopin’s Prelude in E Minor Op. 28 No. 4.

At age 13 I swore off Television. I was overweight back then. I found myself addicted. Home life was toxic more often than not, and finally when the evening sitcoms would come on the television, those problems went away. Thursdays were my favourite; survivor was on, then CSI. 2 hours of good programming. And the other nights? Well, other programs were on, like King Of Queens. I found myself watching programs I didn’t really care for, just to fill the void, until Survivor, or my Saturday morning cartoons. Watching Television, or VHS movies was about the only Family Activity we could all enjoy, (later on A____, my younger brother, and I would harmonize Simon & Garfunkel songs on long car trips). But, it would never fail, the credits for CSI would roll, and that feeling of emptiness would come back, and I would have to wait another week through subpar programming for Survivor again.

We had a wide-spread home school group from all around the U.S. We would get together for summer camps, and it was not out of the ordinary for my peers to actually be restricted from watching television. One Northern Kentucky family of 3 brothers snuck a television in once, and their father smashed it with a hammer. Some would feel this was too rash, however, what I saw was that all 3 brothers had a barn with drums, electric guitars, bases, and keyboards, and were extremely talented at all three. Not to mention being athletic, Ski/Snowboard, hackey-sack, and so on. Another family I knew from down south also didn’t watch television, and were exceptionally talented. One brother could hold the hackey-sack between his toes, perform a flatland backflip, release the hackey-sack in mid flip, land, and continue to kick the sack before it ever the ground. I began piecing together that all the most talented kids I knew didn’t waist their time watching people live in a box. And so I swore it off. When family time around the television took place after dinner, I removed myself to my room, and would read, write, stretch, think, and my life actually began. It was a little easier, because I was in a long distance relationship with a girl from Alabama I had met at Summer Camp (and I had gotten used to skipping television to call her on the telephone. But that is another story for another time.)

Z.D.

Last updated March 22, 2022